Am I the only one who thought the debate was pretty weak on racial issues?

[F4lconF16]

The responses were great from each of the candidates. A transcript for those who don't know:

COOPER: ...Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter? Let's put that question to Senator Sanders.

SANDERS: Black lives matter.

(CHEERING)

SANDERS: And the reason -- the reason those words matter is the African American community knows that on any given day some innocent person like Sandra Bland can get into a car, and then three days later she's going to end up dead in jail, or their kids...

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: ...are going to get shot. We need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom, and we need major, major reforms in a broken criminal justice system...

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: ...In which we have more people in jail than China. And, I intended to tackle that issue. To make sure that our people have education and jobs rather than jail cells.

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: Governor O'Malley, the question from Arthur was do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?

O'MALLEY: Anderson, the point that the Black Lives Matter movement is making is a very, very legitimate and serious point, and that is that as a nation we have undervalued the lives of black lives, people of color.

When I ran for Mayor of Baltimore -- and we we burying over 350 young men ever single year, mostly young, and poor, and black, and I said to our legislature, at the time when I appeared in front of them as a mayor, that if we were burying white, young, poor men in these number we would be marching in the streets and there would be a different reaction.

Black lives matter, and we have a lot of work to do to reform our criminal justice system, and to address race relations in our country.

(APPLAUSE)

COOPER: Secretary Clinton, what would you do for African Americans in this country that President Obama couldn't?

CLINTON: Well, I think that President Obama has been a great moral leader on these issues, and has laid out an agenda that has been obstructed by the Republicans at every turn, so...

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: ...So, what we need to be doing is not only reforming criminal justice -- I have talked about that at some length, including things like body cameras, but we also need to be following the recommendations of the commissioner that President Obama empanelled on policing. There is an agenda there that we need to be following up on.

Similarly, we need to tackle mass incarceration, and this may be the only bi-partisan issue in the congress this year. We actually have people on both sides of the aisle who have reached the same conclusion, that we can not keep imprisoning more people than anybody else in the world.

But, I believe that the debate, and the discussion has to go further, Anderson, because we've got to do more about the lives of these children. That's why I started off by saying we need to be committed to making it possible for every child to live up to his or her god given potential. That is...

COOPER: ...Thank you, Senator...

CLINTON: ...really hard to do if you don't have early childhood education...

COOPER: Senator...

CLINTON: ...if you don't have schools that are able to meet the needs of the people, or good housing, there's a long list...

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: ...We need a new New Deal for communities of color...

COOPER: Senator Webb?

WEBB: I hope I can get that kind of time here. As a President of the United States, every life in this country matters. At the same time, I believe I can say to you, I have had a long history of working with the situation of African Americans.

We're talking about criminal justice reform, I risked my political life raising the issue of criminal justice reform when I ran for the Senate in Virginia in 2006. I had democratic party political consultants telling me I was committing political suicide.

We led that issue in the congress. We started a national debate on it. And it wasn't until then that the Republican Party started joining in.

I also represented a so-called war criminal, an African American Marine who was wounded -- who was convicted of murder in Vietnam, for six years. He took his life three years into this. I cleared his name after -- after three years.

COOPER: Thanks, sir.

WEBB: And I put the African American soldier on the Mall. I made that recommendation and fought for it. So, if you want someone who is -- can stand up in front of you right now and say I have done the hard job, I have taken the risks, I am your person.

Okay, Webb's was crap. But the main three were solid. BLM has made a difference for sure.

But here's the issue: that was almost the extent of the discussion. In the post-Ferguson era, how is this acceptable? It needs to be one of the issues for liberal candidates.

I expect each to be able to be able to fully articulate the problems of race in the 21st century, colorblindness, white reactionism and privilege, and of our entire justice system.

I expect each to have a plan to address these issues. I also want them to talk about how their plan will avoid the traps of traditional liberalism and its inherent violence towards minorities. I want to know how they're going to help further our understanding of race and racialized identities.

I expect each to be able to identify how their own privilege blinds them, and what they plan to do about it.

The debate last night was good--on the issues, and far more substantive than I was expecting. I'm hoping these questions will be asked and a much more significant amount of time devoted to that.

[randys1]

1. Needs to be better, they need to hear from us and BLM that it needs to be better.

You are right.

[yeoman6987]

2. That was the problem of the questioners.

Hopefully they will get feedback and add more in depth questions for the next debate.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. Perhaps the jadedness of me ...

has me thinking that race continues to be an after-thought to white America ... an after-thought that is to be dispatched 3 minutes at a time ... after the really important issues are discussed; but, only if directly asked.

[F4lconF16]

5. I guarantee it.

I went to a Sanders watch party. It was me and about 18 other middle to high income older white liberals.

I felt like I was the only one who noticed it.

Edit: and yeah, only if directly asked. Each of them had multiple opportunities to include that issue, and they didn't.

Same for gender and identity equality as well. Clinton and Sanders nailed it when asked (and only Clinton was given time to respond), but otherwise it was mostly ignored.

[1StrongBlackMan]

8. I would go further; but, I'm tired of being called a "racist" and "divisive" ...

so I'll just leave it at ... "Nice of you to notice. My ally."

Oh yeah ... especially liked the Black reporter(?) getting a cameo appearance to introduce a video of a Black kid asking, probably the second most simplistic question (on race) imaginable.

America has a long damned way to go on matters of race.

[F4lconF16]

14. PM me if you wish, I'm always willing to listen.

And yeah, Don Lemon is a tool for CNN, sadly.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. Worse ... No one seems(ed) to notice how fake that sh!t was ...

Not even liberals!

[F4lconF16]

21. Unfortunately too many see what they want

Rather than what is. It's easier to be willfully blind than to acknowledge hard truths. Even though CNN's treatment of PoC is almost a joke, it's also a serious matter that would bring up a lot of hard questions nobody wants to answer. So we laugh, say "Oh good question, all lives vs. black lives, that'll separate the wheat from the chaff", and pretend that we're solving problems.

Liberal doesn't mean much in my book.

Actually, it does, but I probably shouldn't say it here.

[bettyellen]

34. and then they had a woman, ask about women! Old Coop couldn't speak to these issues...

and passed them off to young people? It was a bizarre thing to watch.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. I think O'Malley responded twice

Cooper opened with his time as a Mayor.

It was a direct 'jab' at the situationin Baltimore. I think O'Malley handled it well -

And his follow up . . . let it sink in.

350 Young black men a year.

COOPER: Governor O'Malley, the concern of voters about you is that you tout our record as Baltimore's mayor. As we all know, we all saw it. That city exploded in riots and violence in April.

The current top prosecutor in Baltimore, also a Democrat, blames your zero tolerance policies for sowing the seeds of unrest. Why should Americans trust you with the country when they see what's going on in the city that you ran for more than seven years?

O'MALLEY: Yes, actually, I believe what she said was that there's a lot of policies that have led to this unrest.

But, Anderson, when I ran for mayor of Baltimore in 1999...

COOPER: She actually -- just for the record, when she was asked which policies, to name two, she said zero tolerance. I mean, there's a number of old policies that we're seeing the results of. That distress of communities, where communities don't want to step forward and say who killed a 3-year-old, it's a direct result of these failed policies.

O'MALLEY: Well, let's talk about this a little bit. One of the things that was not reported during that heartbreaking night of unrest in Baltimore was that arrests had actually fallen to a 38-year low in the year prior to the Freddie Gray's tragic death.

Anderson, when I ran for mayor of Baltimore back in 1999, it was not because our city was doing well. It was because we allowed ourselves to become the most violent, addicted, and abandoned city in America.

And I ran and promised people that together we could turn that around. And we put our city on a path to reduce violent crime, or part one (ph) crime by more than any other major city in America over the next 10 years.

I did not make our city immune to setbacks. But I attended a lot of funerals, including one for a family of seven who were firebombed in their sleep for picking up the phone in a poor African-American neighborhood and calling the police because of drug dealers on their corner.


We've saved over a thousand lives in Baltimore in the last 15 years of people working together. And the vast majority of them were young and poor and black. It wasn't easy on any day. But we saved lives and we gave our city a better future, improving police and community relations every single day that I was in office.

COOPER: In one year alone, though, 100,000 arrests were made in your city, a city of 640,000 people. The ACLU, the NAACP sued you, sued the city, and the city actually settled, saying a lot of those arrests were without probable cause.

This man has 'rubbed shoulders' with black folks like me for a long time. A long time.

He'll bring it up - and guess what - the media did - as a 'jab'.

But that jab glanced past him. We tend to look at 'this' - not understanding why.

[F4lconF16]

13. Fair enough.

I have a less charitable interpretation of O'Malley's actions in Baltimore. Leftists tend not to be a fan.

This piece absolutely hammers O'Malley, and fairly, I think:
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/04/29/david-simon-on-baltimore-s-anguish

Edit: this as well.
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/30/1381542/-Martin-O-Malley-s-Baltimore-Visit-Reminds-Us-Why-He-Will-Never-Be-President

[JustAnotherGen]

15. I think he's the best candidate for the Democratic Party

I'm very in depth - you can read some of my posts of O'Malley by checking out my journal and the O'Malley group.

My friend Lisa is a child's advocate who moved down there in the early early 2000's -

If he's good enough for a black woman who lives in that neighborhood whose child can now play in her front yard - he's good enough for me.

[F4lconF16]

16. And I have.

Your support is reasonable and principled, and you've been a great advocate for him. Always a pleasure to talk with you, even if we disagree

[Chitown Kev]

32. I brought this up over at DK the other day

w/r/t Hillary Clinton's Buzzfeed interview and some of her comments about the 1994 crime bill

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/12/1431341/-Quick-Hit-Hillary-Clinton-a-great-demand-from-the-black-community-to-get-tougher-on-crime

And I, too, liked O'Malley's answer on an obvious gotcha question...the issue isn't as black and white as people make it out to be.

http://www.dailykos.com/comment/1431341/57908659#c69

[randys1]

17. Some poor Black kid has to be shot dead an hour before the debate on a given

night for anyone to talk about this issue for more than 2 minutes.

[brer cat]

7. I think that is a very true statement

and not jadedness.

[lib87]

23. You Say Jaded, I Say Honest

I don't think I heard much discussion about marginalized groups but I think it's because they (candidates) are pandering to their base...which isn't us.

[Number23]

24. None of them would have a "base" at all if it wasn't for us

Obama's two resounding wins showed that once and for all.

[F4lconF16]

29. You would think they would realize that.

But most people aren't worried about racial issues as much as they are the economic ones. Straight up, nobody out of the 18 people in the room with me watching the debates thought it was odd that the only question was a softball one, and barely given time enough for the candidates to get out a coherent statement. Or nobody cared to discuss it. That says something.

Talking to the person next to me about it didn't really go anywhere. They usually have decent knowledge of racial politics, and reasonably informed opinions of moderate nature, but none of them are worried. They're not scared. It isn't them. Not all, mind you. I'm lucky enough to be around a few. But I do think a strong majority.

[Number23]

30. BLM thought that the debate was scarce on race issues as well

So you are in excellent company.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/darrensands/black-lives-matter-gets-lackluster-question-in-democratic-de#.hfDY685G3

[F4lconF16]

28. It's unfortunately rather clear. Nt

[Fred Sanders]

4. I concur. Insufficient discussion of non-economic issues pertaining to immigration and visible

minority issues in general....but that was in the control of CNN who, in my opinion, is averse to discussing the whole topic much, ever.

[F4lconF16]

6. Yes, I put this on CNN for the most part, who avoided it

But a good candidate should be making it an issue. None of them did.

[1StrongBlackMan]

9. True. The candidates seem to have ZERO problems ...

answering questions that weren't asked and pivoting to underscore what is important.

[PatrickforO]

10. Well, six corporations own all media outlets in the US. Time Warner Broadcasting owns CNN.

These big corporations are in cahoots with the rest of the oligarchs and Wall Street bankers. The reason nothing gets done on race is that these oligarchs WANT institutional racism, because then when black people rise up they can play on the fear of working class whites. This divide and conquer strategy has worked real well for them, because no one until Bernie has actually put into words how we are ALL getting our pockets picked.

[JI7]

12. so I guess you haven't read what has been posted and said on this forum for years

[randys1]

18. You just dismissed the race issue and made it an economic one. One paragraph, but I bet

you dont even notice that you did that.

Were you to write TWO paragraphs, as so:

Oligarchs and Wall Street control MSM and rely on all of us to be at each others throats constantly

AND

There is a real, separate, unavoidable issue of overt racism by tens of millions of white Americans specifically targeted at BLACK people...

Then you would be on to something.

[F4lconF16]

19. Bingo. Nt

[Number23]

25. This is probably the dumbest post I've ever seen here

[Chitown Kev]

33. Like manna from heaven, quite literally

because no one until Bernie has actually put into words how we are ALL getting our pockets picked.

Good grief!

[F4lconF16]

22. I didn't like the "this nation has undervalued black lives"

From O'Malley.

We haven't undervalued them, we've systematically destroyed them through willful hate and ignorance.

It's like when Sanders called the Iraq War a "blunder". No, it was one hell of a lot more than that.

Let's be very clear about how we got to where we are now.

[Number23]

26. Exactly! "We haven't undervalued them, we've systematically destroyed them"

But admitting that opens up too many cans of worms that too many people would rather not have opened.

[lovemydog]

27. Another great thread.

I really enjoy reading here.

[MADem]

31. It was pretty bogus. They had Don Lemon bringing in the "black guy" question, and Jorge Ramos

bringing in the latino guy question....why didn't they drag in Christiane Amanpour to ask a question about Iran (she is half Persian, after all!).

On the BRIGHT SIDE....

This debate will slough off a few people--Chaffee and Webb, most likely. That will leave more time for a bit of depth on the next go-round.