Cenk Uygur: #Blacklivesmatter protesters’ ‘burn this shit down’ threat counters message they want to send
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From RawStory:
The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur chided the #BlackLivesMatter protest during Saturday’s Netroots Nation progressive conference, saying that the disruption had gained more attention than the message the movement wanted to deliver.
“None of this looks good,” Uygur said on Monday. “If you care about this movement, I don’t think today’s the day you celebrate and go, ‘Got ’em.’ I wish this helped, but I really don’t think it did.”
Uygur showed footage of the demonstration during town hall appearances by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, including the crowd jeering O’Malley by using the phrase “white lives matter, all lives matter” during one response. Critics have argued that adding those descriptors minimizes the issue of police violence in black communities.
“I’m not sure the answers were so great in that context,” Uygur conceded. “But if we shut down the conversation after that, you’re gonna alienate people. You don’t want to alienate people, you want to bring them into the conversation, because that’s the only way we’re gonna get change.”
The host also showed video of the movement’s co-founder, Patrisse Cullors, saying, “If I die in police custody, call my mom, then burn this sh*t down.”
The statement was a reference to the #IfIDieInPoliceCustody tag that gained interest following the deaths of Sandra Bland and Kindra Chapman, but Uygur argued that that type of statement did not help the situation. He also knocked activist Tia Oso for saying after the demonstration that the candidates “have a lot of homework to do.”
“I would challenge you and say you’ve got a lot of homework to do,” Uygur said in response. “In how to do this in a way to get people on your side.”
Watch Uygur’s commentary, as posted online on Monday, below:
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Iam sick of their constant whining. Get a job.
These assbags best not come barging into a restaurant chanting and screaming their obscene bullshit while I’m in there with my family. I don’t support people of any color who want their own judges, and their own laws, and I certainly don’t support them disrupting lives of people just going about their business. Fuck them.
I agree with him 100%. I was sympathetic to their cause until they started screeching at Bernie Sanders, cursing, and threatening. I’m no longer sympathetic and hope they get arrested the next time they disrupt a peaceful meeting, with ‘peaceful’ being a word they should be understanding.