Everyone but Jim Webb Says Black Lives Matter

“Black Lives Matter was simply to call attention to a unique set of circumstances that was happening in the black community; and to any way undermine that, or belittle that, ultimately in no way shape or form adds to the relationship between police officers and the black community, or the community at large, because most people get it”.

Up first was Bernie Sanders, who unequivocally answered “black lives matter”, invoking the popular Twitter hashtag that has come to represent a national movement against police brutality and racial and social injustice.

However, the true victor of the debate on Tuesday was the Black Lives Matter movement, said Van Jones, a CNN political commentator.

Clinton said “communities of color” need a “new New Deal”.

There was that awkward moment at the Democratic Debate in Las Vegas last night when moderator Anderson Cooper turned to the Black guy, Don Lemon, for a question about race that should have been anticipated by every candidate on the 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”.

“When I ran for mayor of Baltimore-and we we burying over 350 young men ever single year, mostly young, and poor, and black, and I said to our legislature, at the time when I appeared in front of them as a mayor, that if we were burying white, young, poor men in these numbers, we would be marching in the streets and there would be a different reaction”, O’Malley said, using a thoroughly rehearsed stump speech line.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who was booed at the 2015 Netroots Convention in July when he said “All lives matter”, was more evasive in his response.

Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb answered by saying “every life in this country matters”, though he went on to emphasize he worked on issues pertinent to the black community while he was in the Senate.

He didn’t clarify exactly what he meant by “the situation” but later discussed the importance of criminal justice reform.

“What we need to be doing is not only reforming criminal justice”, Clinton said. Webb said he supported affirmative action only for African-Americans due to their “unique history in this country, with slavery and the Jim Crow laws that followed”. That is really hard to do if you don’t have early childhood education, if you don’t have schools that are able to meet the needs of the people, or good housing. “There is an agenda there that we need to be following up on”. Getting the candidates to talk not just about the phrase, but about issues like mass incarceration and income inequality was a big win, he said. There’s a long list.

Clinton also touched on the need for solutions to mass incarceration, “including things like body cameras”, but pivoted to economic issues, calling for a New Deal for people of color.

Yeah, we get that, Senator Webb. Nor did she mention the words “Black” or “African-American” at any time during the entire debate.

“I don’t know if we won the debate, but we’ve entered the debate in a significant way”, said Cullors.