So, a friend of mine shared this with me. This video involves a black person representing black lives matter, or at least talking about it, discussing the issue with Clinton, and Clinton basically acts extremely tone deaf and talks down to him. I am almost beyond words. All election, Hillary Clinton has been portrayed as this champion of black people, and that if you support Trump, you're a racist, and if you support Bernie or Stein you're privileged (although admittedly maybe there's a point with some Trump people). This narrative has been pushed all election, and it's really been pissing me off. And now Clinton goes and does something so tone deaf I'd almost rank it up there with Trump's taco bowl thing. Un-freaking-believable.
First, let's talk about what exactly she said. She said, in response to black lives matter being a primarily white problem, that if that's his logic she should talk only to white people about fixing the problem. Um...what? WHAT?! This is way more tone deaf than Sanders has ever supposedly been, and again, I suspect if that Trump said that he would be crucified by the media for doing so. She also said that she doesn't care about changing hearts and minds, only systems. Now, as someone who has interest in system changing, I tend to at least slightly agree on some issues, but dang, changing hearts and minds is a thing too, especially on this particular issue.
Look, here's the thing. Black Lives Matter is a problem that has to do with cops acting in ways that end up being systemically racist. They tend to react more violently toward blacks than toward whites assuming the same actions and the same crimes. You can change rules and procedures and stuff, but ultimately, cops have to make FIELD DECISIONS that require split second decision making, and if they are victim to implicitly racist attitudes those field decisions may have systemically racist consequences, like black people getting shot way more often even when not being particularly threatening.
That being said, a few things that need to be said that run directly counter to Clinton's comments here.
1) Whites DO need to listen to blacks on this issue. Whites talking only to other whites is a huge problem that leads to this issue, because whites living in an echo chamber don't understand blacks. White NEED TO LISTEN. Hillary Clinton NEEDS TO LISTEN. And she isn't. She's showing her "privilege" in cringey ways here. Go back to the public policy cycle I mentioned I mentioned in previous posts. Before we can address a problem, it needs to be defined. And black people have a problem with systemic racism that we're not going to understand unless we let them talk and define the problem to us.
2) This is a hearts and minds issue. You can regulate all you want, but again, we're talking police officers making split second decisions in the field, and their implicit racial biases perhaps playing a part in these their decision of whether they shoot or not. The best way to solve the issue is for whites to change, to become aware of these biases and try to grow out of them. Not ignoring them and pretending they don't exist. That being said, Clinton is dead wrong here.
What Clinton has said here was extremely cringey and a paramount example of white privilege. The same white privilege her campaign has accused my favorite candidates and many who think like me of this whole election. Hillary doesn't understand black lives matter. Hillary, I don't think, even understands the issue properly. And like she's done with Sanders supporters all election, she is talking down to and condescending those who disagree with her. She's showing worse social skills than I do, and, for a bit of self deprecation here, that's pretty darned bad.
I suspect that if anyone else had done this, CNN, MSNBC, and all the other propaganda arms of the democratic party would be spamming this stuff 24/7. If Sanders said it in the primary, he would be torn apart for it, and he has been attacked for far less. And if Trump said it, forget it. But Clinton? She's the democratic party declared champion of black people anywhere, the only candidate who "truly gets it", and that anyone who disagrees with her here is either racist or privileged. Meanwhile all I see here is her being extremely privileged. Gotta love those double standards though. Can't wait to see how CTR spins this one if it's even mentioned at all. I'm guessing they'll try to downplay it.
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