Discussion
Super disingenuous framing by HuffPost.
Look. I'm the king of calling Bernie and his Bernie Bros and the DSA Bros out on their anti-Black racism.
This is not that.
He was asking a *Black leftist*, how they address nonsense from *Black centrist* because as a white leftist, this is not his place.
“Could he win? Maybe. But we’d be making it considerably harder for ourselves by nominating someone whose views are extreme and whose background is part of a system voters hate.”
Extreme, huh. Voters hate these "extreme" views, huh.
There are few people I have lower regard for than political strategists.
He did not say that "Black leaders defang the white left."
He said that there is a gap growing between young Black progressive voters, and older Black centrist politicians.
"It's not something I can talk too much about, because I'm white, and it's not my struggle."
Scrub to 41 minutes and listen.
https://convergencemag.com/podcast/black-internationalism-with-khury-petersen-smith/
Would it be safe to say that young progressive anything has a lot of problems with older centrist things I think even younger centrist things.
It’s the centrism
I can tell you that Clyburn was wrong for supporting Senator Biden's crime bill in 1993. Millions of innocent Black people went to jail as a result.
I can tell you that Clyburn was wrong for giving president Biden a standing ovation for transferring Covid relief funds to cops. Same result.
I can tell you that young Black voters in the 80s and 90s backed Black centrist Dems and turned out for the candidates that they endorsed.
I can tell you that that doesn't work as well in 2026 as it did in 1996.
I use my knowledge, but also my Blackness to say that. It is my struggle.
If a white leftist criticises Biden on criminal justice policy, but Clyburn defends him? He is correctly saying that he shouldn't and does not speak out of school on this.
Historically Biden has used politicians like Clyburn very effectively, to promote policies that young Black voters don't like.
@mekkaokereke 💯 That Bluesky thread is 😱 although your "pierces me ... like a Fang!" was a great line. But I mean, all the white people telling you that it's anti-Black ... smh. A good reminder that as bad as fedi can be, white people are white people no matter what social network we're on.
@mekkaokereke Yeah, my immediate thoughts went to Clyburn as well. Biden owes Clyburn his one term as president; without his endorsement, 2020 would have gone very differently. But I remind myself that Clyburn is an adult-ass human being who makes his own decisions (which are at times extremely wrong), and he's not the representative of an entire people.
I'm glad Biden beat the former guy, but man. The party could have done so much better. Ugh.
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
