# Why are Black Lives Matter activists disrupting Bernie Sanders' appearances and what effects? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 9, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345 "2015-08-09T00:04:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/81 "2015-08-10T22:48:20Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Google Donald Sterling and then come back to this thread and let us know if you still believe that racism is still a middle and lower class phenomenon. That’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve read in a while. Donald Sterling created opportunities for African-Americans. Whether or not he personally likes African-Americans is irrelevant. Donald Sterling has not held a single African-American down. A lot of teachers, shop owners, and police have though. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/82 "2015-08-10T22:49:41Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > +1 > > That, to me, is the story that has never really been talked about in the mainstream, probably because they’re more interested in controversy than in the actual exploration of the complex issue of race, class, and the interplay of those factors in law enforcement. > > But like you, I really wish activists, whoever they are, would use someone other than Michael Brown as the poster boy. I don’t have a problem with the fact that Brown was at times a mischievous kid. Trayvon Martin was, too, but I see the two cases differently. Martin, who was really doing nothing but minding his own business on the way back to his residence, was a real victim, IMO. Mike Brown, on the other hand, was anything but. > > I think that’s the problem I see: just because you have an unarmed black man killed at the hands of an armed white guy doesn’t in and of itself mean that the dead black guy is somehow this innocent victim. His behavior’s a factor. Anyone who gets violent with an armed cop is asking for trouble, especially in this country where cops regularly encounter armed felons and have to make split-second decisions about whether to defend themselves or not. > > None of that is to say that people in black communities don’t have legitimate grievances to make - I think they absolutely do. I think they have a lot of legitimate complaints. But please, choose the poster children carefully. Sanders chose to honor Michael Brown. That’s gonna cost him a little. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/83 "2015-08-11T00:12:29Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Donald Sterling created opportunities for African-Americans. Whether or not he personally likes African-Americans is irrelevant. **Donald Sterling has not held a single African-American down**. A lot of teachers, shop owners, and police have though. Cite for the bolded assertion? You made the claim; you back it up. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/84 "2015-08-11T00:16:01Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Sanders chose to honor Michael Brown. That’s gonna cost him a little. It’s not going to cost him with anyone who would actually vote for him anyway, so I don’t see the downside. It’s not like he’s got a real chance for even the party nomination, let alone in a general election. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/85 "2015-08-11T00:28:07Z")
At least a couple of people who like Sanders in this thread recognize that Michael Brown is not a very good symbol for the BLM movement. Honoring Brown could be seen as pandering. As for Sterling, I was never trying to imply that there aren’t racist rich people, only that it is primarily a problem among the middle and lower classes. Reich can say that we should all unite against the economic elite, at which point I think most African-Americans would say, “Okay, you first.” Does Reich seriously think that poor African-Americans are going to make common cause with the police and small business owners who won’t hire them or even welcome them in their stores against BIll Gates and Warren Buffett? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/86 "2015-08-11T00:37:14Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Does Reich seriously think that poor African-Americans are going to make common cause with the police and small business owners who won’t hire them or even welcome them in their stores against BIll Gates and Warren Buffett? I believe that he is asking the Middle Class to make an effort to be less prejudiced. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/87 "2015-08-11T00:43:59Z")
> [@XT](#): > > …The answer to the title of the OP is fairly simple really…the activists were disrupting Sanders big speech to get their message out and to make folks aware of the issue. They aren’t ‘racists who hate white people’, they are people who want to spread the message that should be easy enough to grasp, but incredibly isn’t…that black peoples lives matter too, and that as a society we’ve become shockingly desensitized to black deaths. And that this needs to end. This is something that black people themselves need to really believe, in their hearts…that their lives DO matter. And white (and asians, and hispanics, and everyone else) people need to believe in their hearts that black lives matter as well. Everyone needs to grasp this concept deep down where it counts and we need to shake off the apathy. (post shortened) All Lives Matter. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/88 "2015-08-11T00:53:25Z")
Shaking off the apathy means deprioritizing our issues in favor of theirs. I doubt most white liberals are willing to actually do that. It means implementing Bernie Sanders’ civil rights agenda in the first 100 days and saying that the student loan plan, the climate change plan, the economic plan, the taxes, and the spending only happen AFTER that fight. ---
**Author:** ![doorhinge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@doorhinge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doorhinge)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/89 "2015-08-11T01:00:04Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > What have you read, heard or seen that makes you think that? Democrat candidate-for-President O’Malley was boo’d for saying white lives matter and all lives matter. > **[O’Malley apologizes for saying ‘all lives matter’ at liberal conference | CNN...](https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/martin-omalley-all-lives-matter/index.html)** > > Martin O’Malley apologized after being criticized for saying “all lives matter” in the context of a discussion about black Americans killed by police. \*That’s as far as he got before two women walked onstage and grabbed the microphone. “If you do not listen … your event will be shut down,” one of the protesters told organizers, who offered to let them speak after Sanders. After a back and forth with the screaming protesters, organizers relented and said the demonstrators could go first. Some in the largely white audience booed and chanted for protesters to let the senator talk. A few yelled for police to make arrests. Marissa Johnson, one of the protesters, shot back, “I was going to tell Bernie how racist this city is, filled with its progressives, but you did it for me,” accusing the audience of “white supremacist liberalism.” She cited Seattle’s own police problems, including an ongoing Justice Department consent decree over use of force. The activists demanded 4½ minutes of silence in memory of Brown, to symbolize the 4½ hours his body lay on a Ferguson street. While rally organizers raised their hands in support, some in the crowd yelled profanities.\* [http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/black-lives-matter-protesters-shut-down-bernie-sanders-rally/](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/black-lives-matter-protesters-shut-down-bernie-sanders-rally/) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/90 "2015-08-11T01:05:28Z")
If that spectacle was intended to keep black voters in the Clinton camp, it worked. A mostly white crowd being hostile to black protesters? Absolutely brilliant if it was planned that way. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/91 "2015-08-11T01:15:51Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > If that spectacle was intended to keep black voters in the Clinton camp, it worked. A mostly white crowd being hostile to black protesters? Absolutely brilliant if it was planned that way. Isn’t Brown the guy that tried to take a gun away from a cop? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/92 "2015-08-11T01:24:36Z")
> [@doorhinge](#): > > (post shortened) > > All Lives Matter. They all SHOULD matter, but the reality is that, as a society we (obviously) rate some lives mattering above others. The sad thing is that many blacks (and hispanics) don’t think their lives matter as much…and certainly many whites don’t think that black lives matter as much either. Some of this is class, as I think black lives of middle and upper class matter (to whites) more than blacks of the lower classes…just as whites of middle or higher class matter more (to whites) than whites of the lower classes. But some of it is straight out racism or racist perspectives. Thus, a movement like this is to try and get people to understand that black lives, regardless of class or circumstance matter as much as anyone. White folks don’t generally have an issue with thinking that their lives matter, though obviously that’s painting with a huge broad brush. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/93 "2015-08-11T01:39:02Z")
Eh. Can I disparage Darren Wilson? Is that OK with you? Police should not gain the right to become executioners because they neglect to carry all their gear and neglect to use the gear they have properly. Wilson had a vehicle. He presumably had pepper spray and a nightstick and a working radio. He chose not to carry a taser; that’s on him; but he didn’t need one. He didn’t need to draw his sidearm either. He had no good reason to be in fear of Mike Brown. So, yes, that was an excessive force incident. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/94 "2015-08-11T01:42:24Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > As for Sterling, I was never trying to imply that there aren’t racist rich people, only that it is primarily a problem among the middle and lower classes. Reich can say that we should all unite against the economic elite, at which point I think most African-Americans would say, “Okay, you first.” Does Reich seriously think that poor African-Americans are going to make common cause with the police and small business owners who won’t hire them or even welcome them in their stores against BIll Gates and Warren Buffett? The police in many cities are the servants of the rich. So what do they have to do with it? And as for shopkeepers not welcoming blacks into their stores, what is this, 1960? Anyone with that attitude today is a lawbreaker (yes really!) and part of the problem. Is Sanders campaigning as the anti-civil-rights guy? No, he’s not. What is with you? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/95 "2015-08-11T01:43:34Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Shaking off the apathy means deprioritizing our issues in favor of theirs. I doubt most white liberals are willing to actually do that. > > It means implementing Bernie Sanders’ civil rights agenda in the first 100 days and saying that the student loan plan, the climate change plan, the economic plan, the taxes, and the spending only happen AFTER that fight. Sez you. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/96 "2015-08-11T01:43:39Z")
True, but anyone who would attack a police officer and a shop owner is a dire threat to society. Should Michael Brown have been killed? Probably not. But he was far from an innocent victim. “How not to get shot by the police” starts with “Don’t assault people to steal their stuff” and is followed by “Don’t assault cops.” This is not one of those situations where a white guy would have gotten better treatment. His ass would have been capped just the same. Darren Wilson was going home to his family that night. Darren Wilson’s failure to do his job correctly led to a kid’s death. Nevertheless, it was a lesser “crime” for Wilson to screw up and get put in that position than what Michael Brown did that day. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/97 "2015-08-11T01:46:19Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Sez you. What did Obama get done in his first two years vs. what he wanted to do? Done: Health care, stimulus, banking regulation. Not done: climate change, immigration, civil rights, gun control. There is only so much time and so much political capital. Sanders cannot do everything, even assuming a friendly Congress. BLM supporters, at least the ones that are somewhat politically savvy, know that if it’s not the top priority it’s not going to be a priority at all. And they are correct. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/98 "2015-08-11T01:49:32Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Eh. Can I disparage Darren Wilson? Is that OK with you? > > Police should not gain the right to become executioners because they neglect to carry all their gear and neglect to use the gear they have properly. Wilson had a vehicle. He presumably had pepper spray and a nightstick and a working radio. He chose not to carry a taser; that’s on him; but he didn’t need one. He didn’t need to draw his sidearm either. He had no good reason to be in fear of Mike Brown. > > So, yes, that was an excessive force incident. But there wasn’t an “execution”. He didn’t tie up Michael Brown and shoot him in the back of the head - that would have been an execution. But that’s not what happened. It’s fair to say that Darren Wilson may not have responded in the best manner possible. It’s fair to speculate if Wilson could have made different decisions, but I don’t feel sorry for a guy who assaults an old man before looting his store and then commits what in most jurisdiction amounts to felony battery of a police officer. And as Ferguson proved last night, it doesn’t take the shooting of an unarmed black man to touch of violence in their city. In fact, it just took enough people to gather in one place. I think the biggest problem in Ferguson is…some of the people in Ferguson. Definitely not all, but some. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/99 "2015-08-11T01:51:45Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Donald Sterling created opportunities for African-Americans. Whether or not he personally likes African-Americans is irrelevant. Donald Sterling has not held a single African-American down. A lot of teachers, shop owners, and police have though. I dunno…housing discrimination seems like a pretty big deal to me. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345/100 "2015-08-11T01:51:54Z")
Actually, that’s probably outsiders. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-black-lives-matter-activists-disrupting-bernie-sanders-appearances-and-what-effects/727345.md?page=6)