Black leaders chastise Sanders backers for alleged racist attacks following vote

[lapucelle]

A group of black leaders is pushing back against alleged racist attacks from supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign after the Working Families Party decided to endorse Sen. Elizabeth Warren instead, Splinter News reported Thursday.

The Working Families Party, a progressive grass-roots political party primarily based in New York, endorsed Sanders in 2016 but announced on Monday that it was endorsing Warren in 2020.

The letter from more than 100 black leaders was released Thursday evening and condemns “hateful, violent and racist threats” from Sanders supporters following the WFP’s endorsement.

snip===================================================================

The Working Families Party is led by Maurice Mitchell, a black man, and Nelini Stamp, a working-class person of color, the letter says. Both are being threatened on a daily basis with slurs like “Uncle Tom” and “Slave,” according to the letter.

“These kinds of threats have no place in our movements, and are reminiscent of the threats Black people would receive when daring to vote even though the white supremacists would try and discourage Black people from doing so,” the letter states. “The virulent, racist attacks on these leaders are unacceptable and dangerous.”

The letter was signed by dozens of prominent black activists, including Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Global Network, and Tarana Burke, founder and executive director of MeToo.

“Many of us, the undersigned, are no stranger to these kinds of attacks — too many of us receive threats like these ones every day because we dare to organize our people towards freedom,” the letter says. “But if we hope to take back this democracy, if we dare to struggle for electoral justice, if we really want a world where Black lives do in fact matter, all of us must take a stand against these real and persistent threats.”

snip===================================================================

Mitchell said that the party was proud to call both Warren and Sanders “allies in the fight for a more just America. Senator Warren and Senator Sanders have both shaped the ideological terrain on which this campaign is being waged,” Mitchell said. “They have proven an effective team on debate stages and in the polls, and we hope that partnership continues.”

The party has refused to release the breakdown in results in their voting between the votes of their leadership and membership, which they released in 2015. This has led some Sanders supporters to speculate that he won the membership vote but was defeated by the party’s leaders.

Mike Casca, a Sanders campaign spokesperson, told the Washington Post the campaign believed the party should release the final tallies of the board vote and member vote. “The inconsistency and lack of transparency is creating unnecessary division,” Casca said.

The party responded to this criticism in a lengthy Medium post, which states the members of the party leadership are representative of state and local chapters of the WFP and other grassroots organizations.

https://bit.ly/2mucBk9

https://medium.com/@WorkingFamilies/2020-and-the-party-were-building-together-d3385bc80ac5

[BlueMississippi]

1. k&r nt

[brush]

2. Disgusting. Reminiscent of the 2016 disruptors, but the window has closed for...

a particular candidate, thus the back fighting racism and bitterness.

[murielm99]

3. If he can't manage his supporters,

he can't run the country.

Has he even bothered to address this situation? I think most people who desire leadership would do that.

[George II]

5. Yesterday he and Turner tweeted vague messages about not accepting racism, but....

....neither addressed this directly (I think Turner's has been deleted).

Link to tweet

[George II]

4. The BS' campaign has spent more time telling the Working Families Party....

...how to run their endorsement votes than they have telling their own supporters to be respectful.

All we've seen so far are two tweets:

Two sentences from Sanders
One sentence from Turner

THAT'S IT!

He needs to address this directly AND publicly.

Failing to do so is disqualifying.

[comradebillyboy]

6. Before this little tiff no one outside of NY even heard of WFP. The over the top

outrage from his supporters is all too typical however. Reminds me of the sour grapes when the Human Rights Campaign and Planned Parenthood didn't endorse him.

[PhoenixDem]

7. K&R n/t

[Gothmog]

8. Good Article