The protests worked: Bernie Sanders said her name at Democratic debate
The protests worked: Bernie Sanders said her name at Democratic debate
Jorge Rivas
Fusion
For months, Black Lives Matter has been criticized by liberals and pundits for shutting down Bernie Sanders speeches with calls to “say her name” and “save our men.” But it turns out interrupting America’s most liberal candidate worked.
At Tuesday’s Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders said her name.
“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 are going to get shot,” Sanders said, referring to the 28-year-old woman who was found dead in a jail cell this summer three days after she was arrested.
“It’s not like we like shutting shit down, but we have to,” said Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors ahead of Sanders taking the stage at the Netroots Conference in Phoenix. The group also spoke up when Martin O’Malley was on stage.
“We need to combat institutional racism from top to bottom, and we need major, major reforms in a broken criminal justice system in which we have more people in jail than China,” Sanders said during the debate, adding he wants to make sure “our people have education and jobs rather than jail cells.”
Moments later at 6:56pm local time in Las Vegas, Sandra Bland was trending in Google searches across the country. Some 10% of Google searches in the United States were looking for information about Bland.
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors tagged Bernie Sanders in a tweet and wrote “good job.”
Related:
At the First Democratic Debate, Black Lives Mattered for Exactly One Question
Bernie Sanders: Black Lives Matter
I Support Bernie Sanders for President and I Also Support the Black Lives Matter Takeover in Seattle
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