Y’all. If one more person shares one more story about how the women who interrupted the Bernie Sanders rally on Saturday were plants, or that they weren’t “really” with BLM, or that BLM has apologized with a non-committal “Hmmm” or a “Really makes you think!”, we are going to have to start lighting things on fire.
This is, simply put, not true. And even if it was – why the fuck do you care so fucking much? What makes you feel better about this?
Armchair activists, upset Sanders fans, and citizen journalists are sharing all kinds of bunk information. They are grasping at straws to discredit this activism. They are digging up dirt on the women and their previous affiliations, actions, religious beliefs, and political alignments. They are questioning whether they were “really” with BLM, or flat-out lying to say that they were paid (by, claims have stated, Clinton, Trump, the CIA, AND EVEN BERNIE SANDERS), as if to say “ah ha! See? A good activist would never do that. A real activist would never interrupt a politician I like! We can discredit this entire thing, now! Ahhhh, I feel better.”
It’s incorrect. It’s divisive. It’s harmful. And if you’d rather believe that than the fact that two Black women had enough reasons to be furious and hurt and afraid, it shows your true colors.
The women are actually from Outside Agitators 206, a local activist group aligned with/inside of BLM that includes “youth, students, workers, parents, teachers, artists, street philosophers, survivalists, revolutionaries, solutionaries, Queer, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and White Allies.“ They released a statement on their blog.
Not enough for you? Here are some more points of clarification:
From Seattle for Bernie Sanders:
“To quell some of the rumors; no these young women were not plants. They are not corporate sponsored antagonists. They do not work for the CIA. They do not work for Hillary.
I know this because I contacted the person who knows them and I asked. And then… I listened. She spoke at our monthly meeting which I feel was the most productive and inclusive meeting yet. Please, hear me when I call for peace. And I call for unity. And I ask for solidarity. We can win this. We really can.”
From Black Lives Matter:
As stated in our mission, #BlackLivesMatter is an ideological and political intervention; we are not controlled by the same political machine we are attempting to hold accountable. In the year leading up to the elections, we are committed to holding all candidates for Office accountable to the needs and dreams of Black people. We embrace a diversity of tactics. We are a decentralized network aiming to build the leadership and power of black people. We do not endorse any political party and we are not supported by any political party. Our political aims we’ve stated clearly.
Historically, all political parties have participated in the systematic disenfranchisement of Black people. Anti-black racism, especially that sanctioned by the state, has resulted in the loss of healthy and thriving Black life and well-being. Given that, we will continue to hold politicians and political parties accountable for their policies and platforms. We will also continue to demand the intentional dismantling of structural racism.
...and also:
The #BlackLivesMatter organization did not create any petitions demanding apology from Seattle based organizers.
From the 16-year-old girl who was the admin for the page that was once called Black Lives Matter Seattle but is now called Black In Seattle:
Hello. My name is Nikki and this will be my first time posting on this page under it’s new name. I would like to address all points of confusion with my page as well as my thoughts on yesterday’s rally.
1.) I started this page under the name Black Lives Matter Seattle with out realizing I had to check with the official chapter members of Seattle and the national network. The name has since been changed to Black in Seattle
2.) The two women that were at the rally yesterday were actually members of BLM Seattle
3.) I have spoken to them and as far as I know, they are not conspirators with any other democratic candidates or the GOP
4.) I personally support Bernie Sanders. But I can not apologize for them or speak for them about what happened yesterday and they have not apologized
Ok, now that that those points are cleared up, I would like to talk about the reasoning behind the interruption. I can see that there are thousands of you who have viewed my page and a lot of you have written in to show your displeasure about it. I was watching MSNBC this morning and women from BLM really shed some light on what happened. This is not the first time a candidate has been interrupted on stage by BLM and it won’t likely be the last. Those women, like many others, are on the front lines of a movement. They are trying to send a message to the candidates that their sympathy is not enough. There needs to be some real change. It may have looked rude to many, but the message must be sent through whatever means necessary and every opportunity must been taken (even if the delivery was poor). Please, let go of your anger towards the women and direct it towards police brutality. Do not let yourself be distracted from the deaths!! People are still dying!! Every28 hours there is another death. THAT is what truly should disgust you. Not everything in a movement can be perfect. But our allegiance to them must still be strong. I still support BLM and I think you all should too.
Numerous members of both the Occupy and Black Lives Matter community in Seattle have attested to these women’s veracity.
But even if all of this were not enough – even if somehow it turned out they were paid just to divide the movement – if you decide you no longer support BLM because of it, or if you pick apart this action because you think it was somehow spurred by anything other than murdered black humans, you need to look yourself right in the eye and ask why.
As Ijeoma Oluo wrote for the Seattle Globalist yesterday, “what does official Black Lives Matter look like? Black people who think that black lives matter seem pretty official to me.”
BLM – a movement that literally just asks for black lives to have any fucking worth – should have your respect and support. Period. Full-stop. If it doesn’t because of one demonstration that you are desperate not to believe, you have some shit to sort through.
Instead of trying to discredit an action which spurred actual change – BERNIE SANDERS NOW HAS A POSITION ON RACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE AND ALSO HE IS A MORE RECOGNIZABLE CANDIDATE NOW – by spreading rumors, let’s instead move forward toward progress together.
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