Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley was midsentence when the chanting began. “What side are you on black people, what side are you on!” rang the chorus of around four dozen mostly black protesters streaming into a convention hall in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday.
A woman named Tia Oso grabbed the microphone as the protestors stormed the room.
“We are going to hold this space and acknowledge the names of black women who have died in police custody, and then Governor O’Malley we do have questions for you!” Oso said as the former two-term governor and his interviewer, Jose Antonio Vargas, watched helplessly. “As leader of this country will you advance an agenda that will dismantle structural racism in this country?” Oso asked.
“Yes,” O’Malley managed to answered, before he was drowned out again.
O’Malley was speaking at Netroots Nation, the country’s largest gathering of progressive activists when the proceedings broke down in a cacophony of boos, cheers and heckles on Saturday. Shortly afterward, Bernie Sanders, another Democratic candidate for president, was also silenced on the same stage by the group of Black Lives Matter protesters. Chanting, the activists shouted out the names of black women who have died in police custody and peppered the candidates with questions about their civil rights records.
A sea of mostly white progressives, including unions, labororers, bloggers, activists and musicians sat watching the drama unfold.
It was a moment that spoke to the tumult on the Democratic left and surprised even the organizers of the nine-year-old annual event. As the Democratic party increasingly coalesces around a progressive wish list like expanding Social Security and reining in Wall Street, the growing Black Lives Matter movement is calling loudly for the left to focus on racial injustice as well.
The two presidential candidates found themselves at the center of the chaos, both caught off guard and unable to answer the protestors.
“Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter,” O’Malley said to boos and jeers.
I am speechless at the rudeness and disregard for public decency. Do the people involved in that organization really expect to be taken seriously?
If these people are the rank and file members of Black Lives Matter, then I have zero respect for their organization. They are the equivalent of the Black KKK.
I believe perhaps I have said enough…for today.
O’Malley has apologized for his offensive statement that “All Lives Matter”
“That was a mistake on my part and I meant no disrespect,” O’Malley told the outlet. “I did not understand the tremendous passion, commitment and feeling and depth of feeling that all of us should be attaching to this issue.”
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/martin-omalley-all-lives-matter/index.html
Strike him off my “like” list. They were rude A-holes. O’Malley doesn’t owe anyone an apology and if he apologizes, he is a wimp. I have rarely seen such outrageous behavior by an organization that thinks they have something legitimate to say. KKK, Code Pink manners.
I really should not have watched that clip. I am enraged all over again.
Don’t these people have security at these events?
O’Malley needs to grow a set.
“I did not understand the tremendous bigotry that all of you attach to this issue.”
This is what he SHOULD have said.
Earth rotating backwards. Cargo and I agreeing.
For more information on why saying “All lives matter” is offensive, you can read more here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/19/1403677/-Dear-Progressives-You-Have-a-Tone-Deaf-Issue
The short version as I understand it (and bear with me since I’m still fairly new to this) is that responding to the challenge of #BlackLivesMatter with “All lives matter” tries to “re-center” the discussion by taking the focus off people of color and the systematic targeting black people in the US. By shifting the focus off BLM, it shuts down much needed discussion about the BLM movement.
Also, people who respond with “All lives matter” to the BLM challenge are exposing their own biases. They are hearing “Black Lives Matter (more)” when in reality the power of the BLM challenge is “Black Lives Matter (too)”
All of the above is paraphrased from the blog post I linked to. To be clear, I’m not calling anyone out on their white privilege. Since I am not a PoC, it isn’t my place to do so. I’m just trying to educate on why white people don’t realize how offensive “All lives matter” is.
I would assume O’Malley’s apology came after he was similarly educated on his white privilege and how offensive.
I guess I will just have to be offensive then. THEY offend ME. Bad manners always offend me.
So after I read that diatribe of crap, I am to assume that its now ok to be a black racist? That guy was having himself a real pity party.
I don’t accept their premise.
When the statement is “Black lives matter too.”….then I’ll accept it.
As of now….. that “movement” is acting as if only they are aggrieved and segregating themselves.
ALL lives matter.
No one has the “right” to call anyone out on alleged “privilege.”
@Moon-howler
Hey! We actually agree on a lot of things.
🙂
Moon, haven’t you noticed? It’s been “okay” to be a black racist for YEARS.
LOL occassionally we do agree, Cargo.
Hillary Clinton had to apologize for saying ‘all lives matter’ as well if I’m not mistaken…
I think you are mistaken. Who made her?
Shouldn’t someone bring up the fact that the Democrats INVENTED the Confederacy to these concerned African Americans? I mean…if the flag offends them……
Just sittin’ here…..eatin’ popcorn….watching the fight…… 🙂
@Moon-howler
She went from this:
http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/06/24/417112956/hillary-clintons-three-word-gaffe-all-lives-matter
To this:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/20/politics/hillary-clinton-facebook-black-lives-matter/
I guess people do what they feel they have to do. That’s the neat thing about not running for office or working for anyone else. You can say whatever the Hell you want to say. The worst consequence is maybe your friends won’t speak to you.
My point was, no one makes Hillary do anything. She doesn’t have a boss now.
Cargo: No matter how often you try to blame today’s Democratic party for slavery or the Civil war, it doesn’t make it relevant. The Civil war was was caused by the people in the South initiating an open rebellion against the United States. Those Southerners didn’t then move north and become today’s Democrats. They stayed put and became today’s GOP.
I prefer to say they seceded to form their own country, or more importantly, to get out from under the yoke of the USA federal government. That move didn’t work out so well for them.
Other than difference in terminology, I tend to agree. Is Cargo back to being a Republican?
@BSinVA
No matter how you try to portray today’s use of the confederate flag and other memorials as racist, today’s citizens do not support slavery. If the hunt to destroy vestiges of slavery and Jim Crow is valid, that must include the Democrat party. The Dems are just as valid a target as a monument or piece of cloth. Perhaps a name change…because the name is offensive to historical sensibilities. I mean, if “Redskins” is so offensive……then “Democrat” should be so too.
The CLASSIC liberals removed slavery. Southerners reject the progressive policies of today’s Democrat party because of the socialist, anti-American leanings that they perceive to be prevalent. Today’s Democrats are not the same liberals as those that freed the slaves. Today’s “liberals” have more in common with the progressives of the 1910’s, 20’s, and 30’s, as so proudly stated by Hillary. The progressive movement misappropriated the term when “progressive” became tainted by their support of eugenics, fascism, and dictatorship.
The progressives took over the Democrat party during the 60’s.
Funny how there is more segregation and racial strife in the north than in the south.
Cargo, I think you are way too hung up on jargon and labels.
Who really cares. Anyone who was around at the time knows what happened in the south as far as people changing parties. It doesn’t matter about labels.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that Moon. There are plenty of donors to her slush fund that would beg to differ. She owes a lot of people a lot of favors.
She also has the ability and freedom to thumb her nose at them. Again, my point: she no longer works for anyone who can force her to do something she doesn’t want to do. She can pick and chose what pressure to give in to.
Its sort of like retirement and running a blog. You can do what you jolly well want to do. No one owns you. I take no advertising for that very reason.
Cargo: Please provide your data and source references showing that there is more racial strife and segregation in the North than in the South. I am very interested. Thanks
@Moon-howler
I respectfully disagree… You take no advertising, she takes TENS OF MILLIONS (if not hundreds of millions) of dollars from oppressive countries as well as Wall Street/Chinese tech companies/ you name it.
No, taking boat loads of cash from shady foreign governments/hedge fund mangers is not comparable to a retiree running a blog. Not. Even. Close.
No, I didn’t compare her to a retiree who blogs. I was pointing out that I didn’t have a boss.
So she has the millions from all sorts of slimy people and countries, according to you. SHE has the money. Are they going to take it back?
There isn’t anyone who is going to make Hillary do a thing.
Maybe O’Malley is one of those white people who doesn’t feel “privliged” just for being white. The generalization that ALL white people think that way is nuts. I don’t. To try and politicize racism is equally as nuts. This whole thing is nuts.
I’m from the North. We just don’t like assholes. Regardless. No patience.
My guess is that O’Malley meant exactly what he said. Nothing more.
Totally agree and not from the north.
I could not be happier. The booing of O’Mally was instructive of the problems we now face, to include the media’s political agenda to continue to play up a demonstatively false narrative. Who was it that discussed the political value of the big lie and its repetiiton? That O’Malley felt compelled to apologize not once but several times ended his presidential aspirations.
@BSinVA
Take a look at the news. Where are the race riots?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/new-york-schools-segregated_n_5034455.html
http://blackdemographics.com/geography/segregation/
Simple google search. Where is most of the hostility between races?
Thanks Cargo… I get it now. The Confederate flag is a symbol of American patriotism, the GOP is less racist than the Dems, the South is not now and may have never been for slavery, the cause of the Civil War was the Federal government’s stepping on the rights of its citizens to be free, citizens armed with guns guarantee a peaceful community, if you want the truth, tune into the Fox channel, Ronal Reagan actually did have all the right answers, everything Obama says is wrong, everything America stood for was right and every one born in this country has an equal chance of succeeding.
@BSinVA
Wow…
That escalated quickly.
Apparently answering your questions factually and honestly sets you off on inane rants.
What is your problem?
Cargo: for you to imply that minorities and women get a better deal in red states than in blue states casts questions about your ability to see the real world. I grew up in Alabama. I know how white folks talk in private there. I live in Northern Virginia (which would be a blue state if we ever get statehood) and I know how white folks talk in private there as well. It is a world apart from Alabama.
In private conversations with a cross-section of NoVa residents, I don’t hear the word uppity, “acts white” or any other such nonsense. In Alabama, it was commonplace.