WaPo | Clinton has been talking about how to “pull us together” on the
campaign trail consistently since February. Her knowing, empathetic
message that attracted African American voters during the primaries has
remained consistent. But her words have gained more power and urgency in
the wake of the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by
police and the murders of Lorne Ahrens, Michael J. Smith, Michael Krol,
Patrick Zamarripa and Brent Thompson in Dallas.
During a speech
at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem on Feb.
16, Clinton did something no white politician running for president had
ever done to my memory: talked about the responsibility white Americans
had in bridging racial divides. “White Americans need to do a better
job of listening when African Americans talk about the seen and unseen
barriers that you face every day,” the former New York Senator told the
mostly African American audience. “We need to recognize our privilege
and practice humility, rather than assume that our experiences are
everyone’s experiences.”
In the midst of national grief, when
both sides of the criminal justice debate felt justifiably aggrieved,
Clinton repeated that call to empathy in an even more powerful address to the African Methodist Episcopal Church National Convention in Philadelphia last Friday.
Ending the systemic racism that plagues our country – and rebuilding our communities where the police and citizens all see themselves as being on the same side – will require contributions from all of us. White Americans need to do a better job of listening when African Americans talk – talk about the seen and unseen barriers you face every day. We need to try, as best we can, to walk in one another’s shoes – to imagine what it would be like if people followed us around stores, or locked their car doors when we walked past. Or if every time our children went to play in the park, or went for a ride, or just to the store to buy iced tea and Skittles, we said a prayer –‘Please, God – please, God – don’t let anything happen to my baby.’
And let’s put ourselves in the shoes of police officers, kissing their kids and spouses goodbye every day and heading off to a dangerous job we need them to do. When gunfire broke out yesterday night, and everyone ran to safety, the police officers ran the other way – into the gunfire. That’s the kind of courage our police and first responders show every single day somewhere across America.
Clinton returned to these themes on Wednesday, in Springfield, Ill., in an effort to show that all of the concerns roiled by the bloody events of last week are valid.
“Now
I understand that just saying these things together may upset some
people. I’m talking about police reform just a few days after a horrific
attack on police officers. I’m talking about courageous, honorable
police officers just a few days after officer-involved shootings in
Louisiana and Minnesota. I’m bringing up guns in a country where just
talking about comprehensive background checks and getting assault
weapons off our streets gets you demonized,” she said then. “But all
these things can be true at the same time.”
