Democratic candidates could risk turning off white working-class voters by aligning too closely with the Black Lives Matter movement. But Mckesson says the movement can’t and won’t be ignored.
“People will choose to stay home, people will opt out of the process completely if the platforms don’t speak to issues that face them,” he said.
Earlier this month at the Netroots Nation conference in Arizona, both O’Malley and Sanders were confronted by protesters chanting, “Black lives matter.” Clinton wasn’t there. That’s where O’Malley used the phrase “all lives matter” — not once, but twice. This compounds concerns that activists already had about policing tactics implemented when he was mayor of Baltimore.
After leaving the stage, in an interview with This Week in Blackness, O’Malley apologized for using the phrase.
“That was a mistake on my part. And I meant no disrespect. And I didn’t mean to be insensitive in any way,” he said.
All three candidates have since adjusted their rhetoric.