This is how candidates in
good faith forthrightly deal with the use of a phrase that some have used to
take shots at them.
The New York Times reports the following, from Pete Buttigieg’s South
Bend State of the City Address in 2015:
“There is no contradiction
between respecting the risks that police officers take every day in order to
protect this community, and recognizing the need to overcome the biases
implicit in a justice system that treats people from different backgrounds
differently. We need to take both
those things seriously, for the simple and profound reason that all lives
matter.”
In the last few days, there
has been a stir over his use of the phrase “all lives matter,” devoid of the
context in which he used the phrase – a context that explicitly recognized ”the
biases implicit in a justice system that treats people from different
backgrounds differently.”
But rather than being
defensive over the use of the phrase, discussing at length his support of
policies that would benefit the African American community and his connections
to the African American community, and explaining his intent and
the context in which he used it (the typical and understandable approach most
politicians would take), Buttigieg directly addressed the impact of
the use of the phrase, telling reporters at the National Action Network
conference the following:
“At that time, I was talking about a lot of issues around racial
reconciliation in our community. What I did not understand at that time, was
that phrase, just early into mid-2015, was coming to be viewed as a sort of
counter-slogan to Black Lives Matter. And so, this statement, that seems very
anodyne and something that nobody could be against, actually wound up being
used to devalue what the Black Lives Matter movement was telling us. . . .
. That is the contribution
of Black Lives Matter, and it’s a reason, since learning about how that phrase
was being used to push back on that activism, I’ve stopped using it in that
context.” See, also, here. for
the video of his comments.
While arguably not as big
a deal, and certainly not as grand, as Barack Obama’s March 2008 "A
More Perfect Union" speech about the controversies surrounding his minister, Jeremiah
Wright, Buttigieg’s handling of the issue shows the same thoughtfulness and
wisdom. This was Buttigieg’s first test in handling campaign
adversity. I believe he passed the test.
***********************************
Post Script:
Republican Never-Trumper Jennifer Rubin seems to have become
reborn as she covers the 2020 Democratic Party landscape. These two
articles, from April 4 and 5, are quite something:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/05/five-things-stacey-abrams-pete-buttigieg-get-than-most-pols-dont/?utm_term=.e8f0855a3262
For more background, see https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2019/03/pete-buttigieg-links-feb-and-early.html
For more background, see https://davidfishback.blogspot.com/2019/03/pete-buttigieg-links-feb-and-early.html
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