Warning to Democratic Presidential Candidates...Don't Say White Lives Matter

Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O'Malley (and later Bernie Sanders) were invited to appear before an energized crowd at the annual convention of Netroots Nation, a far-left, political activist organization formed by the liberal political blog, Daily Kos. Early on, a large group of protesters from Black Lives Matter paraded into the convention hall shouting "Black lives matter" and "Say her name" while calling out the names of black women who died while in police custody.

When it was time to introduce former Maryland Governor O'Malley, a woman walks on stage and begins an impassioned plea for more attention to be given to the issue of police brutality and spoke of the "national emergency" concerning the lack of safety for black and brown people at the hands of police.  When O'Malley began to speak, he said a couple of things that did not sit well with some members of the audience, most notably that "All Americans have a responsibility to recognize the

pain and grief throughout our country from all the lives that have been lost to violence.  Whether that's violence at the hands of police or whether that's violence in the hands of civilians."  That was his first mistake, to say that civilians actually kill other civilians and families feel this pain.  For this crowd, he was only supposed to blame the police for the deaths of black and brown people.

And then he made his next misstep when he said:  "Every life matters.  Black lives matter.  White lives matter.  All lives matter."  Oops. Immediately after saying "White lives matter," many members of the audience groaned and booed loudly. Although O'Malley was clearly taken aback by the negative reaction to his attempt at being a voice of reason, he repeated the line again, only this time he sounded as if he'd just been punched in the gut.  Apparently, O'Malley didn't realize that he wasn't just speaking to democrats, or liberal democrats for that matter, but to far-left political activists and agitators.  O'Malley clearly does not have his hand on the pulse of a growing segment of his own constituency. 

They apparently don't know just how entrenched socialist-styled activist organizations have become within the democratic party. They must not realize how well-funded and organized these groups are. Perhaps it never occurred to them that these groups may have an entirely different agenda, one that doesn't necessarily include racial understanding, healing, unity or such ideals. When Bernie Sanders took the stage, he too was bombarded with chants of "black lives matter." But Sanders had the benefit of seeing what happened to O'Malley and was better able to handle the disruptions. To their credit, many audience members were put off by the protesters, most likely because the idea that only some lives matter was foreign to them.

O'Malley is a quick study. He seemed to rapidly grasp this new reality for the Democratic party--that the influential players are no longer limited to big unions, deep-pocketed, left-leaning organizations or ultra wealthy individual donors. Well, actually, these organizations and individuals remain key players when it comes to promoting far-left issues, but for the past few years, they have developed a new strategy, they fund groups like Black Lives Matter, Occupy, Black Alliance for Just Immigration (the woman wearing the afro in the video, Tia Oso, is the coordinator for BAJI), The Ruckus Society (environmental anarchists), and hundreds of other groups that promote a wide range of issues which may seem noble on the surface, issues such as justice, equality and human rights.  But with just a little digging, it becomes clear, that many of these groups are driving an agenda that's anything but noble.

So with his reality check firmly in place, O'Malley quickly issued a public apology for saying that white lives matter and that all lives matter. 

O'Malley is not fit to lead.  Whether he understood the context of the discussion or not, he was right in saying that civilians are also dying at the hands of civilians (actually far more than by police*)--it was another way of saying black on black violence is the main cause of the high number of black deaths.  But that didn't fit the agenda, so he was booed. This nation is in need of real leadership, not panderers.  And as far as I'm concerned, the issue of black-on-black violence for these well-funded groups and their sponsors is nothing more than a nuisance. Perhaps it's time for a new hashtag, 

#Black Lives Only Matter When Ended At the Hands of White Police.

*For detailed stats on black-on-black crime, read my post Baltimore Pt. 2.