Attributed to the rise of social media, there has been recent attention to how police brutality unfairly targets black lives; Black Lives Matter is an international activist group rooted in black communities that organizes protests surrounding these issues. When Black Lives Matter interrupted Bernie Sanders’ rally, white supremacy in the American left was exposed. The Atlantic released an article about the dialogue that ensued after Black Lives Matter interrupted the rally. There have been debates about whether it was sensible to target Bernie Sanders as he is widely recognized to be the most accommodating candidate on racial issues and he was just beginning to pick up momentum. However, Black activists argue that Vermont is largely white and Bernie himself is white; regardless of Bernie’s particular racial politics, he was targeted to highlight racism among white liberals. In their responses to the Black Lives Matter action on social media, white liberals expressed agreement with BLM activists’ cause, but not with their methods. For Black Lives Matter, such statements illustrate that racism is not a priority for white liberals.
Recently Killer Mike has endorsed Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and he released a statement:
“Our Founders created a republic and, being keen students of the history of republics beginning with Athens, they knew that placing special and narrow interests ahead of the common good and the commonwealth was the corruption that destroyed republics. They feared this kind of corruption as the greatest danger to America’s success and survival…
By this standard, today’s American Republic is massively corrupt. Every interest group in our nation has staff lobbyists and hires lobbying firms…
The net effect of the money machine — lobbyists, fund raisers, and campaign consultants — is to severely narrow the field of those who can compete for office, especially national office. If the national presidency were to pass back and forth between two or three families in any Latin American nation we would call it an oligarchy.”
Bernie Sanders is popular among white liberals but his emphasis on income inequality affects many black households as well. Killer Mike’s endorsement might help bring attention to Bernie Sanders within black communities, whose members are likely to embrace his policies over Hillary Clinton, whose election would be tantamount to oligarchy, according to Killer Mike.