While in London recently, President Obama spoke to young activists and leaders at a town hall meeting, offering some unsolicited advice to those fighting for change back home and had some tough words for the Black Lives Matter movement. The president was asked about the social movements that made him change his mind about issues in the White House.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vAIoer8HNA
He credited the campaign for gay marriage equality to leading him to reverse his position on the issue, and then pivoted to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“The young black activists have been really effective in bringing attention to problems of the criminal justice system and police violence.”
He cautioned, however, that the group’s leaders have been too dismissive of elected officials. The president also noted that he was speaking from experience telling the audience:
“I started as a community organizer trying to pressure politicians into getting things done…and now I’m on the other side.”
Obama met with Civil Rights activists, including representatives of the Black Lives Matter movement, in February at the White House to discuss criminal justice reform. Ainslinn Pulley, one of the co-founders of the group’s Chicago chapter, declined the invitation. Pulley wrote in an essay for Truthout, an online news organization:
“I could not, with any integrity, participate in such a sham that would only serve to legitimize the false narrative that the government is working to end police brutality and the institutional racism that fuels it.”
The decentralized Black Lives Matter movement burst onto the national scene following the 2014 police shooting of an unarmed black teenage, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then, activists have protested police brutality by stopping Black Friday sales, shutting down rail stations and becoming a fixture on the presidential campaign trail.
They have disrupted Bernie Sanders, heckled Hillary Clinton and protested at Donald Trump rallies, leading to tense confrontations and violent reactions.
Obama didn’t mention Pulley on Saturday, but he criticized some Black Lives Matter activists who, he said, were unwilling to negotiate with elected leaders.
“The value of social movements and activism is to get you at the table, get you in the room, and then to start trying to figure out how is this problem going to be solved…You then have a responsibility to prepare an agenda that is achievable, that can institutionalize the changes you seek.”
Some see Obama’s actions as trying to cement his legacy as his time in office draws to a close but many others rejoice to see the president tackle issues dear to his heart, unshackled by political pressure.
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