Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors has a message for the incoming Biden administration – pay up. She hasn’t come right out and said that but the message is clear. Cullors sent a letter requesting a one-on-one meeting with the president-elect but so far her request has not garnered a response.
Cullors says that the organization has “expectations” of the Biden administration and they will be around to hold the administration accountable. The presidential election was ‘won by Black people’ for Biden, she said. She is ready to leverage her new-found power. Recently she created headlines after signing a multi-year deal with Warner Brothers Television Group. She has a large platform available to her and she is claiming that “black voters showed up in huge numbers to turn this country around and remove the racist in the White House.”
What is abundantly clear is Black voters tipped the scales in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, especially in Rust Belt battleground states. It’s a testament to our communities that the same people who have been treated the worst by our democracy still showed up to save it. We congratulate President-elect Biden and particularly Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, on becoming the country’s first woman — a Black woman — to serve as Vice President. This historic win is a testament to the work Black women have been doing in the streets, in this campaign, and at every level of politics. On Jan. 20, 2021, the sun will rise on an America that is no longer a global embarrassment. New work will begin.
Biden’s win wasn’t historic, of course, but he did win the most votes of a presidential candidate. Likewise, President Trump won the most votes of a president seeking re-election. Kamala Harris’s victory was historic. So, Cullor’s brand of race-baiting and sense of entitlement may not reap the rewards she expects. As I wrote last month, she and the other two women who co-founded BLM are cashing in. There is no mandate for a far-left administration after the election. Voters soundly rejected far-left candidates and there was no blue wave. If anything, there was a red wave, as Republicans are flipping seats in the House and winning contested races. At the state level, Republicans gained ground, especially with redistricting on the agenda in 2021.
Joe Biden had to walk a fine line between claiming the mantle of a moderate Democrat who can work with Republicans and a progressive who will be beholden to the far-left who fell in behind him to win the election. Biden is a career politician so he aptly managed to do that. Now, he faces four long years of demands from the socialist/Marxist wing of his party who feel entitled to make their agenda happen. I, for one, will enjoy watching Biden maneuver between rank and file Democrats and the far-left progressives. Biden did brag that he will be the most progressive president ever, so, we’ll see about that.
Black Lives Matter Global Network sent a letter to the Biden-Harris team to really ask for a seat at the table. We have not heard back from them. I really hope my first fight with this administration isn’t whether they will meet with us. We know that the Black Lives Matter Global Network and all the Black-led organizations around the country really helped win this election and we hope that they sit down with the leadership that was dedicated to getting them in office. Black Lives Matter will be there to hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable and work with this administration to dismantle a system that for too long hasn’t worked for the Black community.
One specific piece of legislation Cullors and her supporters expect to be passed in the Biden administration’s first 100 days is the BREATHE Act. It’s a defund the police-style bill that solely concentrates on black people – 13% of the population of the U.S. How is good old Joe going to get unity in our country if he focuses on only one group?
The BREATHE Act brings four simple ideas to the table: divest federal resources from incarceration and policing; invest in new, nonpunitive, non-carceral approaches to community safety that lead states to shrink their criminal-legal systems and center the protection of Black lives — including Black mothers, Black trans people and Black women; allocate new money to build healthy, sustainable and equitable communities; and hold political leaders accountable to their promises and enhance the self-determination of all Black communities.
Biden isn’t the only politician that will be feeling the heat from BLM. Governor Newsom is being told by the organization that Senator Kamala Harris must be replaced by another black woman. It’s non-negotiable.
Elsewhere, BLM has begun pressuring California governor Gavin Newsom to appoint another black woman to replace Kamala Harris, who will vacate her senate seat in January when she become Vice President.
The group has started a petition calling for either Karen Bass or Barbara Lee to be appointed in Harris’s stead, guaranteeing a black woman will remain in the senate until at least 2022, when Harris’s current term expires.
‘Appointing a Black woman to this seat is nonnegotiable – this must be done,’ the peititon says.
It’s quite likely that Newsom will cave to that pressure – unless he caves to pressure to appoint a Latino. He’s determined to appear as woke as possible. We’re going to need a lot of popcorn to watch Democrat politicians who live and die by identity politics manage everyone’s expectations going forward.
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