"O'Malley and Sanders interrupted by Black Lives Matter protesters in Phoenix"

"a second protester, a Black Lives Matter activist who was introduced as Patrice, was invited on to the stage to ask a question.

“It’s not like we like shutting shit down, but we have to,” she said. “We are tired of being interrupted.”

She added: “We are in a state of emergency. If you don’t know that emergency, you are not human.”

“I want to hear concrete actions,” she told O’Malley, “and I want to hear an action plan.”...

O’Malley switched to an inclusive tack. He said: “Every life matters and that is why this issue is important. Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter.”

He was greeted, repeatedly, by booing...

Among pressure groups, support for the protesters was strong.

Anna Galland, executive director of MoveOn, issued a statement which said: “The presidential candidates’ responses today to the powerful protest led by black activists at Netroots Nation … make clear that all Democratic candidates have work to do in understanding and addressing the movement for black lives.

“Saying that ‘all lives matter’ or ‘white lives matter’ immediately after saying ‘black lives matter’ minimises and draws attention away from the specific, distinct ways in which black lives have been devalued by our society and in which black people have been subject to state and other violence.”...

Immediately after the event, in a tweet, O’Malley said: “Everyone deserves a voice. #blacklivesmatter. I WILL promote a racial justice agenda as president.”

Using the same medium, Vargas said: “To folks who ask me why I didn’t stop protestors: We cannot silence people of colour and women of colour#BlackLivesMatter. #nn15”"

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/18/martin-omalley-bernie-sanders-interrupted-hecklers-phoenix?CMP=edit_2221

I'm feeling really delighted by this #GoodTrouble. When you aren't given space, you need to make space for yourself; when racism-related violence is treated like a niche issue that politicians don't necessarily need to speak to, that's a moment when a lot of people aren't being given any space.

Related/further reading: 

#BernieSoBlack

"White progressives get a taste of anger & frustration as #BlackLivesMatter activists upstage Bernie Sanders" 

"Frustration.

Anger.

Silenced.

Talked over.

Ignored.

Every single one of these emotions that ran through my white privileged brain in the first few moments of the protest until I was slapped across the face with what I was being forced to confront. Every single one of these emotions are felt acutely and painfully every single day by racial minority groups in our country...

For just that moment, even progressives, sympathetic allies to the Black Lives Matter movement, got a tiny taste of what the movement is REALLY about. It’s about having your voice heard and taken seriously. It’s about, just for a while, having to shut the fuck up and actually LISTEN to someone else. About this not being about THEM but something outside of them, something they really have very little personal experience or first-hand knowledge of...

Later on Twitter I was told these activists were “disrespectful”. Hmmm. Maybe so. But spending your entire life being respectful in the face of frustration and anger and inequality won’t do much to change things."

(credit to JY)