Whose lives matter?

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A contingent from Black The BLM agitators were there because Black lives are Lives Matter insisted that being taken in alarming numbers by those charged to the Democratic hopefuls dating a running account of those killed by police in the USA, along with their color. As I write, the total for this year is 648. Broken down by fatalities per million of their color’s population: 4.12 Black; 1.77 Latino;

suburban, middle-class white youth were being gunned down by Black cops, it would undoubtedly be But when he had the opportunity to rewrite his own considered a national crisis. Clearly in America today narrative and broaden his own base, he failed. … With Martin Luther King Jr., have taught African Americans the protest, Sanders was presented an opportunity eral politicians are willing to explicitly acknowledge on a silver platter: He could overcome his perceived vance their struggle through mass action, than most this—much less take any meaningful action to end negatives and grow his base. All he would have had to do was act with a little humility. But instead, he talked Sic Justice is a long haul strategy. They can build one nix—in his quest for the Democrat nomination? One of Bernie’s most avid supporters, Joe Dinkin, national ics and class trump all. For an audience mourning the communications director of the Working Families death of Sandra Bland, a woman who was arrested at Party, wrote in that venerable organ of liberalism, the no progress on any aspect of racism on the watch of Nation, “Both candidates did damage to themselves; teriously dying in police custody, the jobs program the currently governing ruling-class party with an Sanders suggested just didn’t seem like a sufficient cluded the words ‘white lives matter.’ But Sanders had Netroots Nation bills its live body gather­ ings as the biggest conference of Progres­ sives—by which they mean liberal Demo­ crats. At their annual conclave, held in Phoenix in July, they featured a presidential candidate Town Hall Meeting that included the two top long-shot challengers to Hillary Clinton for the Donkey Party nod—Sena­ tor Bernie Sanders, the Vermont indepen­ dent who for the past quarter-century has caucused with the Democrats, and Martin O’Malley, who just completed two terms as governor of Maryland and prior to that served two terms as Mayor of Baltimore. They came prepared to give their stock spiel to a friendly audience. But that was not to be.

A vocal contingent from the movement in formation known as Black Lives Matter in­ sisted that the Democrat hopefuls respond to their issues. I’m sure that as a former mayor of Brown Town Baltimore, this was not O’Malley’s first exposure to edgy Afri­ can-American dissent. But, after first dem­ onstrating the stereotype that white people can’t get the hang of rhythmic clapping, he appeared flustered and blurted, “Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter.”

While few would challenge such banal­ ity about the sanctity of life in general, O’Malley got a reminder that context rules.

protect and serve them. The Guardian has been up­ 1.58 white.

If the numbers and colors were reversed, if unarmed Black lives don’t matter as much. But few white lib­ this disgrace.

And what about the “socialist” who has been draw­ ing big crowds—including 11,000 at a rally in Phoe­ Sanders was defensive, and O’Malley’s response in­ far more to gain by getting this right.

“I approach this incident as a fan of Bernie Sanders. over the protesters, got defensive about his racial-jus­ tice bona fides, and stuck to his script.

a traffic stop on the way to her new job before mys­ answer.”

that his perspective begins with Bernie’s missed op­ respond to their issues.

“Essentially, he appeared to be arguing that econom­ terposing them.

Dinkin makes some good points but you will note portunities. He thinks a few well-chosen humble words might have got his candidate off the hook. CYA is what “getting this right” means to politi­ cians—not engaging in genuine dialog with Af­ rican-American activists about what needs to be done both in the short-term and long-run. Class and economic issues are key to the goal of eliminating racism root and branch. Whites don’t need to explain this to Black workers who under­ stand it much better than their pale pigment class siblings. Black leaders from Frederick Douglass, through A. Phillip Randolph, down to Reverend to be much more pro-union, and more inclined to ad­ white workers who have much more to learn.

The Black Lives Matter movement is focused on an immediate tactical objective, while Class and Econom­ another—synergy. Nothing good comes from coun­ Patently, despite great expectations, there has been African-American president in charge and Black at­ torneys general overseeing Justice.

A recent feature in The New York Times begins, (continued on page 11, in “Hands off the CBC!”)