A couple of activists from a “Black Lives Matter” group interrupted Bernie Sanders’ speech the other day and quite a few people are mad about it. The primary “Black Lives Matter” group has disavowed the people who did this, and others say that this has hurt their message.
Well, I don’t know about that. I support their cause and still think their message is important. What I disagree with are their methods.
But now there are those on the left who are complaining about those of us complaining. We’re being called racists because we think these protesters shouldn’t have done that. How ridiculous.
Calling out people who disrupt speeches (or gallery openings, or live TV shows, or plays, or anything else where they are not invited) doesn’t mean I disagree with their position. It doesn’t mean I am demeaning them. It doesn’t mean I am a racist.
It means I’m calling them out for their rudeness and inconsideration.
I came to hear someone give a speech, and it wasn’t you. Go away.
If I go to see a concert by a band I like, I’m not going to be happy if another band takes over the stage by force to perform their songs instead, even if I like that other band.
The same applies to anyone who interrupts Republican speakers. It applies to Westboro Baptist Church making noises to interrupt funerals and it applies to liberals who go to Congressional hearings and shout at the Congress members.
Yeah, sure, there is a place for protests in America. And sometimes those rallies have to be a bit rude. So go ahead, have a loud rally. Give a speech. Have a sit-in. You have that right. But don’t come to my event and take it over for your own purpose. Have your own damn event. (I feel the same way about people who come onto my Facebook page uninvited and decide to use it to spam my friends with their own political propaganda.)
These people had a right to interrupt Sanders’ rally. That’s how rights work. And I have the right to say that they were rude, inconsiderate, and didn’t help their cause one bit.
ventrellaquest.com 
It’s unfair that these groups affect Sanders activities. Even when he has consistent on social justice
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Interrupt! Go for it!
Okay, my wanting to see Bernie run is something I have been wanting for years. Netroots shows his blind spot. He handled it wrong and is heading in the right direction. He is still far from perfect on this issue, but hey, that protest at Netroots and this one has changed the debate.
My problem is this one, people are dieing in the streets. I am not talking metaphorically, I am talking literally. And people who want the BLM movement to shut up and support Bernie, is part of the problem.
You can disapprove of the method if you want, but this is working. I do want to see this with all the candidates! Nobody in power and seeking power should get a pass.
Bernie called for revolution, guess what? He got it.
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Guess what, you won’t get it if ANY of the republicans or Clinton is elected. Shutting down Bernie Sanders is about as close to NOT getting what you are looking for as anything. Why wouldn’t these women do that for a Clinton campaign stop or any of the republican speeches? Sorry I don’t see this as helping the cause but actually hurting it.
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Thank you for this. It’s unbelievable, but not surprising, how many people deny the context in which all of this is happening.
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I can’t speak for anyone else, but I most certainly do not want anyone to “Shut up and support Bernie”. If you’re going to support him, I want you to be loud about it. What I would like, if the point is to get the word out, is to see BLM take on candidates who have been perhaps a touch less responsive to their concerns in addition to Senator Sanders, who has at least been willing and able to listen to the concerns of the activist community, and who let them speak at yesterday’s rally rather than have them pulled off of the stage forcibly.
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“I came to hear someone give a speech…” is all about you. Do police profile you? Have you been “routinely” stopped today? this week? this year? ever?
Do you have reason to fear for your life when addressing a police officer because of the color of your skin?
If you don’t have room for these people at /your/ rally it doesn’t make any difference if there is a rally at all. I think Senator Sanders probably knows this.
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The truly sad thing is that if these women had asked the organizers to invite them to speak, they probably would have gotten the opportunity to speak. They wouldn’t have had to force themselves onto the stage and alienate the audience before they opened their mouths.
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What kind of revolution asks for permission? You don’t even see yourself, so delusional.
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Just because someone isn’t black doesn’t mean that they don’t understand what’s going on in society. Trying to bully people into submission is only going to make things worse. Most white people get the message being sent, but are tired of being called racist simply because they’re white. I know I’m personally sick of being treated poorly by black people because I’m white and they just assume I’m a racist. Everyone has their own struggles and just because you’re black doesn’t mean you hold the monopoly on hard times. All lives matter, regardless of race. To say anything different, or bully your way on to stages demanding recognition, is only going to irritate an already tense relationship.
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“Just because someone isn’t white doesn’t mean that they don’t understand what’s going on in society. Trying to bully people into submission is only going to make things worse. Most black people get the message being sent, but are tired of being called niggers simply because they’re black. I know I’m personally sick of being treated poorly by white people because I’m black and they just assume I’m a nigger. Everyone has their own struggles and just because you’re white doesn’t mean you hold the monopoly on hard times. Black lives matter, regardless of race. To say anything different, or bully your way on to stages demanding recognition, is only going to irritate an already tense relationship.”
There, FTFY.
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We have to have room for rude bullies because we’re fortunate enough to not be profiled?
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That’s bullshit. Police don’t profile me, therefore I don’t have a right to hear Sanders speak if I go to a Sanders speech? You are babbling nonsense.
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“Members of the Black Lives Matter Seattle chapter took the stage and forced Bernie Sanders to the side at an event in Seattle. One of the women, Marissa Janae Johnson, asked the crowd to “JOIN US NOW IN HOLDING BERNIE SANDERS ACCOUNTABLE” for not doing enough to address police brutality.”
This broke my heart. How do I stay supportive of the BLM movement whose activists have no respect for a consistent progressive with skin in the game (voluntary arrest for desegregation and others stands) for 50 years on the issue of racial justice?
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Hmm…. I’m not sure which side I stand on this one, regarding their methods. On the one hand, this was a nonviolent action. And that article makes a good point – white people may not listen unless they’re forced to. On the other hand, this is the second time over a short time span that this has happened to Bernie, after he already apparently made some positive changes after the first time. I am actually terrified that Donald Trump could win the presidential election. Is it more important to these activists to give one more speech about the BLM movement than it is to have a Democrat in the executive office? Well, if it is, I guess I can’t argue with them. But it sounds like these actions are only going to happen to Bernie and not to any of the others precisely because he is running on a more democratic campaign method. So while I definitely sympathize with their motivations, it just seems utterly absurd if they are only going to target Bernie. That is basically handing power back over to those who are already in power. And what good will that do the BLM movement? It will be terrible. I guess if they think that Bernie is going to lose and that his campaign exists solely for the purpose of changing the campaign conversation more toward the Left, then I can see why they would think this is a good idea. But otherwise, not so much. I think doing it the first time it happened was something I could more agree with. Here, I am leaning toward thinking this was a bad idea.
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They certainly did NOT have a right to touch the event organizer. Peaceful protests are cool. Assault and battery is illegal.
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I know exactly where I stand and it will never again be with BLM or Bernie Sanders. Anyone who tells a man who half of his family was killed in the Holocaust to bow down is a class A a–h—-. I’m no longer participating in this election cycle so long as ANYONE supports that divisive, racial, radical separatist group. They’re looking to ditch one brand of supremacy to replace it with their own. Not a chance.
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Justice doesn’t have time for manners. You can call them rude, but in the face of the cause they’re fighting for calling them rude is just toothless and petty. I don’t know if that makes you a racist, but it makes you the exactly sort of white liberal MLK was describing here: https://jamieutt.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/mlk-cfw.jpg
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They are narcissistic idiots, doing protest theater stunts and losing, not gaining, support. But that’s okay with them because they got to make a big, disruptive scene. Bullies and nitwits.
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Justice is also blind, just like BLM is blind to the social and economic inequality of every American who does not have black skin. BLM activists have no respect for a consistent progressive with skin in the game (voluntary arrest for desegregation and others stands, and you want to hold him accountable?) for 50 years on the issue of racial justice. I don’t know if that makes them racist, but I am willing to put money on the fact that these activists were paid by a group to do this that has an anti sanders agenda.
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You sound ridiculous. People are dying on the street, everyday, because they are BLACK and seen as less than human in this society. You call what they did “rude” and that’s is simply petty defensiveness when compared with the actual violence experienced everyday by people of color White people are being held accountable for their utter failure to recognize the Black struggle in America.
You want your silly little Bernie rally because it keep the narrative all about White people, but the truth is you are the real oppressors, and when the truth illuminates, the lights don’t shine on white people no more, and they literally boo and scream and whine about “we already did that” when directly asked to respect Black lives. The progressive white people there were sad, pathetic, delusional and just wanted a powerful white guy to validate their self-delusion about their supposed progressive values, but that petty behavior proved how dishonest they are about the values they claimed to hold.
White people that day, in these comments, and all over the internet showed themselves from the deeply troubled supremacists they really are. It is NOT Black people’s job to placate you all and make you feel comfortable about your racism. Youre comfortable because they held a mirror to your face and you couldn’t bare to see who you really were underneath the rhetoric. Look at yourselves, White people, and do the work for yourselves, then you can have actual integrity behind your values. Then maybe Black people will start believing you when you claim you give a damn about the lives of people who don’t look like you.
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My previous comment was intended for the general blog and not as a response to the lead commenter. I have reposted an edited version on the blog since I cannot edit a posted comment.
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People are dying on the street and you’re complaining about an article on the internet? Oh no! Go help them! What they did to Bernie WAS rude. What if a presidential candidate jumped into the middle of a BlackLivesMatter speech and took over? You’d probably call them racist or even rude. Well the opposite is exactly what happened and it was rude and completely tactless to do. They could have set up their own speech rally but instead took up Bernie’s time for their personal agendas. When I go to a speech to listen to someone specific I EXPECT to listen to that person, not anyone else no matter if they’re good intentioned or not. So you can take your self-righteousness and shove it up your ass. Stop lumping up white people together, that’s extremely racist and you should know better than to make claims like that.
I’m not even going to start with your ‘self-illumination’ bull because it all sounds like filibuster drivel. I’m sure you had lots of fun with that thesaurus in hand, but it doesn’t make your beliefs right. And you’re bringing in white people again. That’s racist. Stop being racist.
You’re lumping all white people together again. White people are racist for thinking these BlackLivesMatter ‘leaders’ were rude to Bernie? That’s an outrageous and completely false lie to further push your own agenda.
But man, it sure is easy sitting behind a computer and making a bunch of posts defending these people. Don’t you have something better to do with your time other than make up crap on the spot and basically call white people racists for not agreeing with your ideals? Maybe you’re the racist here for grouping all white people together and pegging them as racist for not believing everything you say. You say there’s people dying in the streets and yet here you are sitting on a computer whining about a white guy not talking about it instead of doing your own part. I bet you were also part of the group of idiots spouting Kony2012. Actually nevermind, you were probably defending him because he’s black and black people can’t do any harm, right? Nor can they be racist! Go out and do something meaningful. Maybe before you start building up the fact that people are dying you should take a look at your own privileged life, starting with your internet access and roof under your head. Many people don’t have that and yet you spout your nonsense to sensible people.
I hope you haven’t actually gave the time to read this and you’re already in the process of coming up with a long reply. Because I’m never going to read it and you’re going to look like an idiot. Hope you’re butthurt.
Get out of here with that BS you damned fool and do some REAL charitable work for these helpless people you so claim are dying.
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You sound confused about the fundamental definition of words.
It’s okay, because I see that you’re also mad, Jack Spade, because you can’t deal with the facts about the true supremacy behind these white liberal motives.
The fact is that a people with power – white people – have been silencing the powerless for as long as the US has existed. The fact is that Black people and POC don’t need white support or your validation at all. The fact that these protestors forcing you to hear this reality is enough to make you write a three paragraph diatribe that essentially amounts to defensive rambling, because your white identity is a fallacy and built of the deaths of other humans who don’t look like you, act like you or think like you. You’re mad because you don’t know where to begin to atone for the messed up legacy of your white ancestors. You live here now, so very mad, about your emptiness, and you take it out on anyone with the audacity to stand up for themselves by simply speaking truth to that power. Today, that person you want to get mad at is me.
I feel bad for you. Without your whiteness, your just another vulnerable and helpless human being like the rest of us and you’re starting to face the fact that the story we tell, as it plays out was never really about you. You were the bad guy in this ridiculous racist narrative all along, and we STILL forgive your sorry ass.
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YOU sound ridiculous whitharrisart! So what you’re saying is that you’re lumping ALL white people into one big ball of racism that YOU need to educate? Give it a rest!! White people don’t need to be held accountable for your struggle, you do. The consistent black defense that I see throughout the internet is that white people are all racists, period, no exceptions. If we disagree with ANYTHING said, we are racist. I have plenty of black friends that are sick and tired of BLM and the violence that is being created because people like you think it’s ok to attempt to beat other races into submission. I am white, educated, have plenty of integrity and I’m NOT racist, but I am sick of listening to all the “poor me” sob stories. If you want a better life, make one. Refuse to be oppressed. Get an education. Make choices that are consistent with progress. I rose up from a shit hole and so can anyone else.
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Please. No one is playing victim but you. No one is saying anything about all white people. It is those who reject reality by making comments like this with the intention of re centering whiteness when it NOT ABOUT YOU. At all. Never was. Never will be about you. I’m not interested in educating white people. Figure yourself out. You are mad and it’s not my fault or my problem.
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The BLM activist’s need for explicit semantics is understandable. But to be so ignorant of who they were interrupting just makes them seem like the activist version of Kanye West. Bernie Sanders has the most substantial civil rights record out of any candidate, and to step on his toes is rude and self-sabotaging.
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How is what they did “self sabotaging?” Sanders never claimed to represent them nor did they request his representation. What they were doing was co-opting his platform and forcing these placated white people to recognize the real violence happening right in front of them. Those white people did not want to hear the truth! The protestors persisted through the noise because that’s exactly what white people have done and continue to do for centuries with their Big White Lie. Black people will be no better with Sanders as POTUS, or with anyone else in power under in the racist, corrupt system for that matter. We are fighting for our lives for OURSELVES and you, White person, don’t get to decide who is the most appropriate leader what are the appropriate methods in our struggle for freedom. Black people have self determination outside of white authority, and we have fought for this and still do. Your petty rage and white tears won’t change this reality.
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We are talking about civil rights, could you imagine if the LGBT community took the same approach to straight allies? Saying ‘Those white people’ makes you sound ignorant AF. Do you honestly think the people at a Bernie Sanders (a civil rights activist) Rally are being violent towards African Americans, or any American? I understand that the metaphor of persisting through the noise, is powerful. But if you have already discounted Bernie Sanders as a credible ally to the civil rights cause you are kidding yourself. Look at Fergusson ‘those white people’ in those top positions lost their job and were replaced by African Americans, yet the situation is much the same. The system is, of course, corrupt. Perhaps a member of BLM should run for the democratic nomination rather than interrupting a well-intentioned ally.
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#stupidlivesmattertoo
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I approved of the Netroots interruption, it started the conversation and made change happen. This second one is just retroactive. It ignores his platforms, completley insults the people they wish to listen to them, and by taking over a speach on social security instead of just a campaign rally, you have effectively tried to discredit other important issues. I’ve heard the #AllLivesMatter hashtag beening related to running through a breast cancer awarness event screaming about other cancers. Explain to me how this is different. Bernie has shown that he listens. Had they of asked, he would of shared the stage. They even offered them time to speak but they insisted on taking it completley over instead. I support #BlackLivesMatter because they do, however I don’t support the destruction of other causes to that end, and the insulting of people without cause.
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You sound ridiculous. People are dying on the street, everyday, because they are BLACK and seen as less than human in this society. You call what they did “rude” and that’s is simply petty defensiveness when compared with the actual violence experienced everyday by Black people. White people are now being held accountable for their utter failure to recognize the Black struggle in America.
You want your silly little Bernie rally because it keep the narrative all about White people, but the truth is you are the real oppressors, and when the truth illuminates, the lights don’t shine on white people no more, and they literally boo and scream and whine about “we already did that” when directly asked to respect Black lives. The progressive white people there were sad, pathetic, delusional and just wanted a powerful white guy to validate their self-delusion about their supposed progressive values, but that petty behavior proved how dishonest they were about the values they claimed to hold. That is exactly what’s happening here.
White people that day, in these comments, and all over the internet showed themselves as the deeply troubled supremacists they really are. It is NOT Black people’s job to placate you all and make you feel comfortable about your racism. You’re uncomfortable because those protestors held a mirror to your face and you couldn’t bare to see who you really were underneath the rhetoric. Look at yourselves, White people, and do the work for yourselves, then you can have actual integrity behind your values. Then maybe Black people will start believing you when you claim you give a damn about the lives of people who don’t look like you.
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Are people supporting these protesters because they agree with them? Would they have the same opinion if the protesters were a pro-life group talking about how terrible it is that Bernie supports “killing babies”?
Let’s be consistent. Interrupting someone else’s event to push your own agenda is wrong, and it doesn’t matter whether I agree with your message or not.
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All of my otherwise intelligent Progressive Liberal friends have been ignoring that question when I ask it. Apparently #onlysomeissuesmatter.
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Sorry if this is a long comment.
The thing that really puzzles me about this entire thing is why Bernie? I’m not being smart and not like I’m not jumping on any bandwagons. I am simply curious. I had of course heard about his background so picking him doesn’t seem to make sense to me.
I put a link below to an excellent article which outlines “a 50 year history of standing up for civil and minority rights”. Some of the things the article mentioned are: Arrested in 1962 for protesting segregation in Chicago schools and police brutality against minorities, participated in the March on Washington, endorsed Jesse Jackson in 1988 for presidential canidacy, and put together a strategy in Aug 2014 to end the minority economic crises due to unemployment discrimation. The author even points out that when calculated, 41 percent of African Americans name the issues he stands for as the major and key issues that they are most concerned about.
So I guess I’m just not sure why he was chosen as the target? Wouldn’t one of the Republicans who have done nothing to help anyone but themselves have been a better choice? Let’s face it, there is a large group to choose from. Was Bernie Sanders just an easy target for some reason? Was his event easier to jump into?
The author suggests the following at the end of his artcile, but I’m not sure that it is entirely true, so I’m really curious as to what the actual reasoning behind his being the chosen target is:
“… much of the criticism of Sanders seems more rooted in who he is — an old white guy from Vermont — than what he has done. If anything, the fact that he has done so much for civil and minority rights despite the fact that his constituency is not one that would naturally demand it speaks to his character and wide empathy that isn’t shared by many politicians.”
This is the article: http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/20-examples-bernie-sanders-powerful-record-civil-and-human-rights-1950s
By Zaid Jilani / AlterNet July 20, 2015
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If you think Bernie Sanders isn’t addressing these issues, you haven’t take the time to visit his website or look at his record. He was working with the Congress of Racial Equality before the Seattle protesters were even born. But, hey, you can always work for Ben Carson, I’m sure he’s 100% on board with what you’re saying.
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This is pathetic I actually wanted to see change this bullshit is another jimmy carter lay my arms down with our current president. I want a president who will actually do good for this country and after seeing how big Bernie’s super PAC is not going to be worth anything a senator who just tucks tail and leaves. No that’s pretty much laying down and getting it right in the down under. Bernie is not going to be the change that America needs. There has been nothing on him about what he will do for our vets, getting American jobs back in the USA that were sent over due to the last presidents, Cleaning up Reagan’s amnesty act, Clinton’s version of the Kate act, reform on DSHS because illegal immigrants are eating up resources like disability, food stamps, welfare, other federal and state funded programs. The racial justice wont follow thru because there is no state that will follow the Supreme Law of the Land. Yet a living wage, would mean that people who work, will be living higher than someone who is disabled, unable to work who every year makes less than 9 grand a year. What about them? What about the college student who just graduated and now has student loans to pay. Regardless of race people need to pull their head out their ass and smell the roses black cop picks on white person administrative leave white cop picks on black guy administrative leave. Regardless of race your more likely to get shot by a cop who is having a bad day because he couldn’t bully someone because they know their rights.
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the same mistakes that doomed the Occupy movement will sink BLM. Nobody will hear a message until they’re ready to hear it, and they will grasp at anything that lets them continue to ignore it. This approach gives them a reason to not listen.
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