Here’s The Video Of Hillary Clinton Meeting With #BlackLivesMatters Activists
Headlines on the story don’t tell the full or fair version – actually watching the video does.Â
“Watch: Wait Till You See What Hillary Just Said In Private Meeting With Black Lives Matter Activists”
“Hillary To ‘Black Lives Matter’ Activists: Maybe I’ll Just Talk To White People”
“Meeting Between Hillary and #BlackLivesMatter Activists Gets Confrontational”
“Black Lives Matter Movement Hijacks Democratic Party… Awkward Exchange with Hillary in New Hampshire”
Those are a few of the headlines today from right-wing or right-leaning sites about Hillary Clinton’s meeting with #BlackLivesMatter leaders last Tuesday. The group released video exclusively to GOOD, which edited it and added some background where necessary.
But do those headlines headlines do justice to the conversation, or to either Clinton or #BlackLivesMatter?
GOOD describes the video as “the exchange between the Democratic candidate and members of the Boston chapter of #BlackLivesMatter, where a somewhat defensive yet candid Clinton responds to several tough questions.”
“Clinton is refreshingly honest and authentic at some moments, and sharply defensive at others,” GOOD observes. “The most uncomfortable: The candidate responds to an activist’s assertion that ‘this is, and has always been, a white problem of violence,’ by suggesting she could talk ‘only to white people about how we’re going to deal with the very real problems,’ a suggestion both Clinton and the activist then acknowledge is not what either want.”
In the video, Clinton says there “has to be a reckoning,” about her support of her husband’s $19 billion Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act, which is responsible for a 60% increase in incarceration for drug offenses. “But I also think there has to be some positive vision and plan that you can move people toward,” Clinton adds.
“Once you say this country has still not recovered from its original sin,” of slavery, Clinton tells the activists, “which is true…the next question is, ‘So what do you want me to do about it?'” Clinton said. “That’s what I’m trying to put together in a way that I can explain it and I can sell it. Because in politics, you can’t explain it and you can’t sell it, it stays on the shelf.”
Clinton also told the group their analysis of institutional racism “is totally fair.”
“It’s historically fair, it’s psychologically fair, it’s economically fair, but you’re going to have to come together as a movement and say here’s what we want done about it,” Clinton said. “Because you can get lip service from as many white people as you can pack into Yankee Stadium, and a million more like it, who are gonna say, ‘Oh, we get it, we get it. We’re going to be nicer.’ That’s not enough, at least in my book.”
One member of the group appeared to take umbrage with Clinton’s response.
“If you don’t tell black people what we need to do, then we won’t tell you all what you need to do,” he told the Democratic former Secretary of State. “This is and has always been a white problem of violence. There’s not much that we can do to stop the violence against us.”
“Respectfully, if that is your position, then I will talk only to white people about how we are going to deal with the very real problems,” Clinton replied.Â
“What you just said was a form of victim blaming,” he accused. “You’re saying that what the black lives matter movement needs to do to change white hearts…”
Clinton responded, “I don’t believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocation of resources. You change the way systems operate. You’re not going to change every heart. You’re not,” she said. “But at the end of the day we can do a whole lot to change some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them.”
“You can keep the movement going, which you have started, and through it, you may actually change some hearts,” she added. “But if that’s all that happens, we’ll be back here in 10 years having the same conversation. Because we will not have all of the changes that you deserve to see happen in your lifetime because of your willingness to get out there and talk about this.”
Watch the video, in two parts, below. It’s about 10 minutes total.
What do you think? Are the headlines accurate? Was it a productive conversation? Decide for yourself.
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Image: Screenshot via GOOD.IS/YouTube
Hat tip: CBS News
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