Imagine for a moment, a straight woman gave a speech...

[DRoseDARs]

...at a LGBT conference when suddenly LGBT protestors set upon her to air their legitimate grievances about the abuses inflicted upon their community and demanding she respond to them, only to shout over her as she attempts to do so.

That woman was Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. That conference was the Creating Change Conference, organized by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, in November 2003. That speech was the one wherein she linked the struggles of the LGBT community to the Civil Rights movement and to her husband's dream.

Can you imagine the shitstorm and condemnation that would have fallen upon the protestors had that happened? Personally, I would have found it difficult to imagine such an unfair ambush ever happening to someone with a long history of supporting the rights of minority communities...

...but it did just happen. And you're OK with it? You'd be rightfully furious if it happened to Mrs. King, but how many of you are cheering and verbally patting the #BlackLivesMatter protestors on the back for a job well done ambushing Sanders and O'Malley? To say nothing of the smears against the candidates that came afterwards or even before. Sanders isn't new to the struggle for justice and equality. He's been at this for 50+ years. These protestors weren't even born yet when Sanders was organizing sit-ins in college. Before the Civil Rights Act. He saw the injustice and racism and violence that befell the black community before #BlackLivesMatter became a trending hashtag on Twitter. Before Eric Garner was felled by an illegal chokehold for a petty violation with racist enforcement policies. Before Rodney King was beaten to within an inch of his life by out-of-control, racist cops. Before racist economic and educational policies destroyed inner-city communities made too poor by said policies to move out of those inner-cities. Before MLK Jr. was assassinated for demanding an end to all of this.

But because he's white, you think Sanders is incapable of knowing what he has known for decades. Incapable of seeing what he has seen for decades. Incapable of fighting for what he has fought for for decades. He's just some old, ignorant white guy and #BlackLivesMatter needs to be yelled into his old, ignorant white guy face until he stops being an old, ignorant white guy.

[JI7]

1. what office was Coretta Scott King running for ?

why not just compare it to politicians who are always protested including by those whose causes they support as has happened to just about every democrat who has run for president.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. Thank you for this

I saw someone make a comparison to how people reacted to this - and how people reacted to Michelle Obama getting heckled by a member of Code Pink. Dredged up an old thread.

Mrs. Obama has never run for public office or been a public servant.

The OP would be a better comparison if used to compare/contrast against the Code Pink disruptor.

Climate Change is at the top of my list - and I didn't get twisted over the disruptive ones SOS Clinton had to deal with last week either. She is a former public servant (Senator and SOS) and she should expect to have her platform questioned.

They all should.

[JI7]

2. so much martyrdom in this

[delrem]

3. Your simile is wrong.

#BlackLivesMatter protestors did what they ought to have done at NN15 - following an honored tradition of political protest. Following an honored tradition of getting a disadvantaged and threatened voice heard.

It has worked in the past and it ought to work this time, too - given the extreme circumstances.

The protest wasn't about Bernie or Martin, it was about #BlackLivesMatter.
Bernie and Martin were simply, somewhat cluelessly (like any other candidate in the current slate would have been, if they'd bothered to even be there) there.

IMO, neither were up to the moment. But neither (in spades!) would the other candidates (who were not there) for either party.

Maybe this demo provided a hint that's there's a need for a change of direction, of thinking.

I don't agree with the spin that pins the problem on Bernie and/or Martin, in particular, just because they were the platform speakers.
The spin that excoriates them, for being there.
I don't agree with the spin that says #BlackLivesMatter was intending to cast Bernie and/or Martin as racists or just wannabe racists or paternalistic or whatever, just because they were the platform speakers. Nowhere have I read direct quotes stating that was #BlackLivesMatter intention.

[TM99]

7. The question I keep asking

is this.

Was this the beginning of protests in general for BLM in this election season?

Do it now include protesting at more Town Halls than just this?

Will Clinton be taken to task as well?

Will we see a strong contingent of BLM protesters at the Democratic convention next summer?

I support strong protests and especially this one AND I want to know that it was not a one-off that just coincidentally happens to benefit one candidate that was not in attendance.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

16. They've said it is.

And that should be warning enough to the candidates to figure out whether they're willing to actually work out some way to put an end to the police violence, or whether they're willing to try and win without black voters.

[TM99]

18. Yeah, I just read a new post

about shutting down the debates. I am writing a comment now about it there.

[bravenak]

5. Your interpretation is white priveledged.

Those women going after a minority woman in a vicious way is nothing like what happened.

But all the Miss Millying you all are doing is proving the point that you don't get it. You are proving them right. It's not about you or your candidate. It's about our lives. OUR LIVES MATTER. If they mattered to you to, you would be applauding, not bitching about how they inconvenienced you with their talk of themselves dying in the street or being locked away in prison.

This is why the meme of the clueless white liberals is spreading. No empathy from you all just a bunch of "AFTER ALL WE'VE DONE FOR YOU PEOPLE!"

[bravenak]

6. And btw; stop trying to connect your stuff to black civil right leaders.

You keep trying to use black civil rights leaders to attack black protestors and you'll see yourself with like 15 black votes. It's ugly appropriation. I'm tired of y'all using Dr. King and other to attack black people with. Paternalistic busybodies.

[lovemydog]

8. +1

[bravenak]

9. I cannot believe this! Thank goodness for MJ!

[lovemydog]

10. MJ?

[bravenak]

11. WEED

[lovemydog]

12. Oh! ROFLMAO!

[bravenak]

13. Lol!

[lovemydog]

14. In the words of the great Harriet Tubman

Pass the dutchie from the left hand side.

?list=RDdFtLONl4cNc

[JustAnotherGen]

20. I love you!

[lovemydog]

22. Love you too

JAG!

[m-lekktor]

17. that's cool you know what race everybody is!nt

[bravenak]

19. Yes, I pretty much do. Yes. They need to stop that shit.

Beating up on by folks by invoking MLK is dead wrong and looks shitty. It repells black folks. We don't want to support the same dude as the jerks using MLK against us incessantly, day after day, post after post, lecture after lecture on shit we dedicate many months of our lives to study. Think about it. It's like invoking the holocaust to beat up on Jews. Fuck that.

If people would spend half the time they spend lecturing black people and invoking MLK on actually listening to black people, they might help their candidate. I mean, most people never meet the candidates but they damn sure meet supporters!! And if you, as a black person who has studied black history to the degree that you could give an oral dissertation at any moment, no prep, got lectured to by white folks who are just using google to try to bully you into supporting Bernie, would you jump right in? Hell no. You turn your ass around and keep it moving and you tell your people how some silly ass white dude just tried to TEACH YOU about MLK. Then you laugh and laugh with your friends and talk about 'what if I was trying to teach white folks about riverdancing?lol' seriously. We been doing it all day. Let teach white folks about Betty Crocker to thank them for introducing me to MLK, who I learned about in the fucking womb. Think about it and check your friends.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

15. There's a way forward from this moment that helps Bernie, and a way forward that hurts him.

Even if you can't see or agree with the urgency of the protestors' message, if you're really a supporter of Bernie's, from a purely selfish electoral standpoint, wouldn't you prefer to choose the way forward that helps him?

I'll give you a (blatant) hint. The way forward that hurts his electoral chances is to dwell on and disparage the protestors.

Politics is about a lot more than hurt feelings, either his or yours. You take the punches the fight sends your way, and you roll with them, and learn from them. You don't sit in the corner nursing your eye and mumbling curses as the guy who punched you like some nutcase going on and on about his red swingline stapler.

[sufrommich]

21. Another "why are black people so ungrateful?" OP.

Yay.

[nc4bo]

23. That's what I'm reading whenever I see this type of post.

It's really getting to be annoying.

Walk in our shoes ffs! It is not a pleasant experience.