In the days following the interruption made by Black Lives Matter protesters at a Seattle rally for Bernie Sanders, many have questioned whether the activists made the right decision in going against the progressive candidate.
When Sanders began his speech to Seattle on the anniversary of Social Security and Medicare, it was presumed that everything would carry on as normal. However, members of Black Lives Matter Seattle chapter climbed over barricades to the stage Sanders was on and promptly took control of the microphone, saying “if you do not listen to [us] your event will be shut down.”
The two main protesters, Marissa Janae Johnson and Mara Jacqeline Willaford, the co-founders of the chapter, were met with loud booing and shouts of “Get off the stage!” from audience members who had waited over an hour for Sanders to speak. When Johnson finally received the microphone from one of Sanders’ aides, she said, "I was going to tell Bernie how racist this city is, filled with its progressives, but you already did it for me, thank you.”
After the rally ended, social media exploded with claims that the protesters were hurting the movement and that they should have chosen another candidate to attack. Conspiracy theories also sprouted up concerning the legitimacy of the protesters; some said Hilary Clinton or Sarah Palin planted them in an effort to destroy support for Sanders. Despite massive amounts of contradiction, Johnson said in an interview with MSNBC that they targeted Sanders because they were tired of progressive candidates not living up to their promises.
“There’s really no point in confronting the GOP, at least, I think, during the primaries, because GOP members will flat out tell you that they don’t care about black lives,” Johnson said. “The thing is, especially on the left, candidates have this liberal rhetoric and we really need them to match it with their words and with their actions.”
Immediately after the rally CNN spoke with Sanders about his reaction to the protesters and he expressed how they were not listening to anything that he had to say.
“I think it’s unfortunate because among other things I wanted to talk about the issue of black lives, of the fact that the American people are tired of seeing unarmed African-Americans shot and killed,” Sanders said. “But there are other issues as well that we have to hear about.”
Both sides have valid points to be made about the racial injustice in America; however, I believe that the protesters were coming from a stronger background than Sanders. After constantly hearing from white progressive after white progressive that change needs to made and that they are tired of seeing black people being killed by police, little to no change has been made. Instead, they cite economic issues as the main cause and bring everything back to helping the middle class above everything else. Black Lives Matter activists are tired of hearing about the middle class, but instead want to hear about how these politicians are going to directly help the black community.
The negative response from the rally audience proved that not everyone, especially “white progressives,” is ready for a black voice to directly criticize the ignorance towards police brutality. While Sanders is considered to be the most vocal and supportive candidate on black lives, there are still many things he needs to say and do in order to gain the confidence of active Black Lives Matter supporters.
