re: #51 Belafon

We’ll have to see. I would be curious to know how West’s statements play with groups like #BlackLivesMatter. A lot of blacks probably know the name but not some of his statements (I say this because, like most people in the world, I’m pretty sure busy blacks don’t have a lot of time to follow politics like we do). So we’ll have to see how this plays out. If he makes one of those statements on the trail, I suspect Sanders campaign will get a lot of sudden attention it wasn’t asking for. If West doesn’t say anything too far out, it might help Sanders.

It’s going to have to be a home-grown grassroots play, then, because any other sort of organizing would have to use fairly experienced people in the community…who are the sort of people who DO follow politics. They would have to go directly to folks like @deray and @netaaaaa and convince them that Sanders means what he says, and that West’s past comments (which they actually would know about) are going to be modified.

(ETA: BLM activists aren’t stupid. They’d do research and listen to other folks, not all of which would be happy about West’s statements).