zlacker

>>mwseib+(OP)
> "So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform."

obama spends the first 7 paragraphs explaining the ideals of government and the vulgarity of violence, and somehow ends up on this "bottom line": let's both (peacefully) protest and politic.

with all due respect, his perspective is subverted by the unique privilege and prestige that only comes with being a past president, from having played the game and won, and reads as out of touch with the needs and desires of most black folks. those folks are tired of waiting and being told to be nice and polite and civil while the police kill members of their community at random.

let's appreciate the need to work the political system the way it was designed--to be slow, deliberate and inefficient--but let's not lose touch with the long violence and oppression of the system against people of color, principally black and brown folks. let's not lose touch with the immediacy and direction of the need that necessarily supercedes slowly meandering civil discourse.

>>clairi+6D
> police kill members of their community at random.

I understand your emotion, but saying that the police walks in the street killing random black people is also unproductive.

You can imagine folks on the right showcasing your post as an example of the "loony left", then starting a discussion about the fact that more whites are killed by police, and so on.

Each time that happens, you lose a tiny bit of support, and that hurts what Obama thinks is important - the election outcome.

>>hkai+uE
no, trying to dismiss the point as emotion or leaning on name-calling are non-sequiturs. people are mad, rightfully so, and being good little citizens doesn't change anything.

you demonstrate my exact point: obama cares about elections and the slow, meandering civil process. he's insulated from the consequences of having that position, unlike the people on the streets.

>>clairi+7H
Perhaps some of your criticism is valid, but would you rather have Obama or Trump?

I think we rarely can choose between perfect and imperfect; we have to choose between two imperfects.

Both on the left and on the right, many people have to hold their nose and vote for the person they despise.

>>hkai+lJ
and the problem there is that the system is designed to present only 2 imperfect choices, so that the 2 parties can seize and hold power. they'd rather begrudgingly share power with each other than let any others join them in the sandbox. and both parties have been co-opted to serve the wealthy, not the people, hence their imperfection.