The Progressive Dilemma

Here's the issue confronting Progressives - is racial inequality a symptom of the disease of income inequality or is it a disease of its own? The #BlackLivesMatter movement butted heads with progressives at Netroots Nation Saturday as activists took over a forum featuring Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders.  Here's a great article explaining the gist of the dilemma:
 http://www.vox.com/2015/7/20/9001639/bernie-sanders-black-lives-matter

The article explains that the #BlackLivesMatter Movement supporters view any attempt to delegate racial inequality to symptom status is actually an attempt to sideline the movement and to not listen to what the supporters are trying to tell progressives about what really matters to the Black community.

The #BernieSoBlack hashtag trended Sunday as Bernie supporters tried to defend their man and remind people that he'd marched with MLK 50 yrs. ago. But the #BlackLivesMatter folks weren't and aren't going to be silenced.

In the Guardian, Elizabeth Day, contends that the #BlackLivesMatter movement is essentially the birth of a new civil rights movement. This movement is about far MORE than income inequality and refuses to be delegated to symptom status by Bernie Sanders or any other Progressive leader. I encourage the reader to refer to her article to see the issues driving this movement:  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/19/blacklivesmatter-birth-civil-rights-movement

If we who would be allies, shed our #WhitePrivilege and stop talking and start listening, maybe we can stand with #BlackLivesMatter activists and do our part for this civil rights movement. Go to http://colorofchange.org/ and read about ways to assist.

About:
"ColorOfChange.org exists to strengthen Black America's political voice. Our goal is to empower our members - Black Americans and our allies - to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone."

There are many other organizations working to support this movement. In fact, they have their own website:  http://blacklivesmatter.com/  There are many ways to get involved on this site. Let's all do our part to be a part of the solution.