Open Letter to Bernie Sanders

Every time I see you talk about your campaign's chance of winning, you adamantly state that you need a revolution- that Americans will need to get far more politically active at a grassroots level behind your campaign. I agree- a revolution is the only thing that could overpower establishment candidates' massive war chests and propaganda machines.

Since August last year, I have seen the beginnings of a revolution on the streets of cities across the country. Unfortunately, this revolution has nothing to do with Bernie Sanders. The revolution we are experiencing is one by people of color against our incredibly racist and oppressive justice system. Every day there are large protests in the street, mostly people of color, demanding revolution. And yet when I read about your poll numbers and chances, here's what I see:

"But the foundational flaws in Sanders’ candidacy are pretty easy to spot. Sanders may be polling well in mostly white New Hampshire, but he hasn’t been able to figure out how to earn more than 5 percent of the nonwhite vote, according to national polls. Nonwhite voters make up more than a third of Democratic primary voters nationally." ( http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/what-to-make-of-the-bernie-sanders-surge/ )

How can this be? How is the candidate whose platform is based on needing a revolution doing so poorly among people who are clamoring for exactly that? This is the one place where you are not taking a strong stand. When it comes to Wall Street, you pull no punches. You demand accountability for Wall Street criminals. But when it comes to the police, the fire fades. You start turning into a typical weasel politician, prefacing your substanceless remarks with platitudes about how you know police officers have a really tough job. When have you ever prefaced a criticism of Wall Street with "Look, let me first say that I know banking is a really hard job"? Yet this is how you treat the organization that is killing (mostly black) Americans once every 8 hours. 

Is it any wonder that none of these revolutionaries trust you?  If you want a revolution of support, it's time you took a real stand on the issues that matter for people of color. Your policies on improving economic opportunities and education will no doubt help black Americans- but how is a person supposed to get excited about jobs when they're afraid that the very people supposed to protect them could gun them down the next time they walk down the street? White guys like me can get behind your campaign because we can afford to care about abstract issues like the TPP or jobs programs. But a black man can't worry about that when he's just worried about surviving the next trip to the corner store. It's telling that when I wanted to write to you about this, there were countless issues I could choose as the topic, but I had to choose "Other" because police brutality and racism isn't even something your campaign even recognizes as an issue worthy of listing.

If you want a revolution to rise up and support your campaign, it's time to take a strong stance against police brutality and racism. It's time to work with black leadership and develop a comprehensive plan to address these concerns. If you come out strongly in support of the solutions being put forth by black leadership, you will have the revolution you need almost overnight.

How White People Can Be Real Allies - And Start a Real Revolution

Across the country, there are hints of a revolution brewing. Occupy Wall Street gave us our first whiff, but there wasn't enough momentum to sustain it and the media's propaganda containment strategies successfully put it on hold. Today the smell if revolution is much thicker, but it's coming from an entirely different segment of the population: People of color. And there is enough momentum to sustain this revolutionary movement as long as it takes. You can feel it in the crowds at protests.

There are other groups out there looking for a revolution. A legitimate mainstream politician, Bernie Sanders, is hinging his entire campaign on revolution. He knows his only chance of winning is if enough people wake up from the fantasy the propaganda has been feeding them for decades. There are other groups out there who know in their private conversations that revolution is needed. Techies and defenders of our civil liberties know we need a revolution to overthrow the NSA surveillance/police state, and to prepare for the way automation is going to render much of human labor obsolete. Libertarians know a revolution is needed to revive the nearly-dead bill of rights, particularly the 4th, 6th, and 1st amendments. OWS knows a revolution is needed to defeat the 1% on Wall Street. Even the Tea Party has a revolutionary spirit, although their brains are so far down the propaganda rabbit hole that I doubt they'll be allies. Scientifically literate people know a revolution is needed to prepare for and slow climate change.

These are very broad demographics that are all starting to realize the United States has become a tyrannical government, and the corporate whores in power need to go. But we remain divided. The propaganda machine makes sure to keep us focused on our differences over issues that don't matter to the powerful. Abortion, gay marriage, small details of gun control- all important issues, without a doubt. But clearly not as important as our own government murdering and enslaving its own citizens, and spying on all of their communication. Clearly not as important as the ludicrously rich pillaging the planet and picking all of our pockets without consequence.

What can be done to unite us and make a peaceful revolution happen, before it becomes too late for a peaceful option? I submit that there is only one group that has the momentum, the motivation, and the sheer force of will and resilience necessary to sustain a revolution: The Black Liberation movement. The revolution already started, folks- On August 9th, 2014 when a government thug murdered Michael Brown and a few brave souls reached their breaking point and said enough is enough.

White liberals have tried to ally with the Black Liberation movement before. But all too often, those so-called liberals were still racist, and not willing to prioritize black liberation. They would join forces, but only really be interested in promoting their individual pet causes. Black leaders were told to wait for the right time, the right political climate, to just keep being oppressed a little bit longer. Black leaders are wary of attempts by so-called allies to co-opt their movement and dilute the core message. We all have our pet issues that are dear to our hearts. But it's time we recognize our position of privilege, and accept that no issue is more important than upholding the human dignity and equality of all our citizens. How is a black person supposed to believe that you really recognize their humanity and worth when you see black people being brutally oppressed but don't make it a top priority to do something about it?

Time For A Black Liberation Party

The way for the 99% to unite and have a true revolution against the white supremacist, corporate-owned government we have today is to unite behind the issue of dismantling white supremacy and liberating America's people of color. Fully commit your political will to this, and the rest will follow. If your pet issue is NSA surveillance, do you think that if an abolitionist party came into power, they would uphold the surveillance state? Of course not! Black Americans (that are aware of it) are as pissed about being spied on by the government as anyone! They're just more pissed about being killed and enslaved by the government. Would an abolitionist party ignore climate change? Of course not! Whatever your progressive issue is, black leadership will probably support it.

So why not unite behind the group that has both the most important issue and the most activist willpower? Let's help black leaders build a political party. Notice I didn't say "build a political party ourselves". We need to follow black leadership. This is their movement. White people have experience with the bureaucracy of political campaigning, and more financial resources to keep a party running. Let's unite a party behind the issue- and if you've got some other pet issue, great. You can join the Black Liberation Party campaign, and help develop the party platform on that issue. But the core focus of the party always must be black liberation- the rest of the platform is just the party's long term plan to do after successfully liberating black Americans.

Or we could just keep standing with our individual splinters dreaming of the day the others unite under our cause, watching the other splinters do their small marches and thinking "man, I wish these people would come to my group's rallies". Because that's worked really well so far, right?