Progressive racial fissure ruptures at Netroots Nation (#NN15)(#BlackLivesMatter)

Progressive racial fissure ruptures at Netroots Nation (#NN15)(#BlackLivesMatter)

One of the big secrets of the Democratic Party is the deep racial tension between the mostly white elite progressive leaders and activists “of color.”

We examined this in detail in 2011, Dem Base Fractures Into Twitter War And Charges Of Racism Against Professional Left. In that post, we documented the Twitter war between black activists and Joan Walsh of Salon.com and Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake:

What is clear is that there is a growing fissure in the Democratic “base” over criticism by the (mostly White) Professional Left, as reflected in this Twitter exchange:

Those tensions have simmered for the past several years, and grown in the past year as the #BlackLivesMatters movement insisted that its voice was not being heard even within progressive circles.

Particular anger was directed at Democratic politicians who used the term #AllLivesMatter, under the argument that caring for everyone equally diminished caring particularly for people of color. (Hey, I didn’t make this up, I’m just reporting.)

https://twitter.com/xvszero/status/613439154899316736

Netroots Nation is the organization that started as progressive bloggers, and now encompasses the progressive movement.

At the Netroots annual conference today, the racial fissure opened up when Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders were on stage. O’Malley broke the rule against saying “all lives matter” and Sanders was talking class warfare, not racial consciousness.

The #BlackLivesMatters activists in the room were enraged.

Here are tweets setting forth what happened:

O'Malley gaffes with this crowd: "Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter." Huge groans and boos. #NN15

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 18, 2015

Martin O'Malley just experienced a disastrous political moment. He needed a plan to fight structural racism. It's clear he doesn't have one.

— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) July 18, 2015

Protest breaks out at O'Malley Q&A, with mostly black protesters singing "What Side Are You On?" #NN15

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 18, 2015

"Black lives of course matter," @BernieSanders says, over chants at #NN15.

— Ruby Cramer (@rubycramer) July 18, 2015

Bernie is giving democratic class consciousness answers to identity politics issue questions and it's a bit jarring #NN15TownHall

— 🕷Dante Atkins🕷 (@DanteAtkins) July 18, 2015

All the Bernie supporters who didn't get why some POC feel a lack of connection with him, it's exactly this. #NN15 https://t.co/CccIVHFHTu

— Emily Crockett (@emilycrockett) July 18, 2015

Brief argument breaks out on floor during Bernie speech. Some white attendees ask black attendees to be quiet. They keep shouting. #nn15

— Chris Moody (@moody) July 18, 2015

.@SenSanders is illustrating the quintessential dem problem. The power structure simply refuses to acknowledge race/supremacy directly #NN15

— Amanda (@TailsAndTypos) July 18, 2015

Now #blacklivesmatter group and Sanders speaking over each other. https://t.co/nvfNukPGq1

— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) July 18, 2015

Lol aww illegal alien @joseiswriting is yelling at #blacklivesmatter protesters to shut up at #nn15 https://t.co/5M8oXjG0Sf

— ¡El Sooopèrr! ن c137 (@SooperMexican) July 18, 2015

https://twitter.com/PruPaine/status/622478753659092992

The protesters took over the stage:

https://youtu.be/YbixEGV_N6g

#BlackLivesMatter interrupts @MartinOMalley at #nn15 and now have the stage pic.twitter.com/3Fy4emWv1P

— Jeff Rae (@jeffrae) July 18, 2015

And now a black political organizer has crashed the O'Malley Q&A and seized the mic #NN15 pic.twitter.com/qZn8POUMDl

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) July 18, 2015

Then they staged a walk-out, and chanted outside the room:

#BlackLivesMatter makes their presence felt #NN15 pic.twitter.com/WgGc4ptZPd

— DRM Action Coalition (@DRMAction) July 18, 2015

What side are you on, my people, what side are you on? #NN15 #NN15TownHall #blackroots #BlackLivesMatter #SayHerName pic.twitter.com/ukKXvwonjm

— Gregory A. Cendana 🏳️‍🌈 (@gregorycendana) July 18, 2015

The movement plans on working so “black and brown bodies” finally are heard in the Democratic Party, as reflected in this tweet from Dream Defenders (which, by the way, is anti-Israel):

Yes, there was a disruption at #NN15. Yes in 2015, we still have to shut shit down to center black and brown issues in 'progressive' spaces

— Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) July 18, 2015

Hillary Clinton avoided Netroot Nation’s conference.

I wonder what the #BlackLivesMatters movement thinks about someone who wants to speak for them, but will not show up to listen to them?

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