Bernie Sanders supporters and the "Snakes on a Plane" fanboy comparison

Right now some of you are wondering what a movie titled Snakes on a Plane has to do with Bernie Sanders and his campaign. Well the comparison between Sanders' supporters and Snakes on a Plane fanboys is not as crazy as you think. Listen to me explain below. George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.com.

Bernie Sanders supporters and the "Snakes on a Plane" fanboy comparisonRight now some of you are wondering what a...

Posted by George L. Cook III on Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Support Your Candidate But Be A Democrat First

I recently posted a politically related video. It led to some great debate and vigorous support/defense of both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. It also led to some nastiness and unfortunately some threatening not to vote for the winner of the Democratic Primary if their candidate if didn't win. I believe that's a very bad idea, hear why below. George L. Cook III.

SUPPORT YOUR CANDIDATE BUT BE A DEMOCRAT FIRSTI recently posted a politically related video. It led to some great...

Posted by George L. Cook III on Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Memo To Bernie Sanders: All African Americans Don't Live In The Ghetto

George L. Cook III

I made this video after watching Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 03/06/16 Debate on CNN. I was upset by his use of the term "ghetto" when talking about African American issues and wanted to send this message to Sen. Sanders. George L. Cook III, AfricanAmericanReports.com

Memo To Sen #BernieSanders: All #AfricanAmerican People Don't Live in the Ghetto #Democrats @AAReports
Posted by George L. Cook III on Monday, March 7, 2016

Bernie Sanders supporters making republican mistakes when it comes to attracting black voters

Bernie Sanders supporters are passionate in their support of their candidate, and there is nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact it’s great that so many young voters are energized and excited about presidential politics.

What’s not exciting is that they knowingly or not have taken to using Republican tactics to attract black voters. Instead of working to make sure black voters know Bernie Sanders civil rights record and what his platform is as it pertains to African Americans, they are busy attacking Hillary Clinton.

Much like the Republican strategy has been used against President Obama they are letting us know what they are against but not what they are for. Talking badly about someone black voters like and respect does not help your cause at all. It hasn’t helped Republicans attract black votes, and it didn’t work too well in 2008 or 2012.

We are reminded ad nauseam about Hillary Clinton being First Lady during Bill Clinton’s criminal justice reforms, her super predator comments, and her treatment of #BlackLivesMatter. I can remember all of those attacks, but you know what I can’t remember? Bernie Sanders stance on issues that affect African Americans.

Whatever you think of Hillary Clinton she has put the work in with many in the African American community to earn their support. None of her supporters are going to change their minds because of a negative post on Facebook or a negative tweet on Twitter. Since many are older voters, they will ignore those type of post because they have better things to do than deal with negativity.

Try posting, tweeting, and talking about the positives for the candidate you support. If you want people to listen about Bernie Sanders talk to them and not at them, you just might get people to listen.

In short, stop acting like Republicans.

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.com georgelcookiii@gmail.com

In the interest of full disclosure Mr. Cook is a Hillary Clinton supporter but a Democrat first.

Spike Lee radio ad in support of Bernie Sanders

Director Spike Lee became the latest black celebrity enter the battle of presidential endorsements. This week the Bernie Sanders campaign released a radio ad called "Wake Up" featuring Lee. Listen to that ad below.

James Clyburn: Sanders' free college plan would hurt HBCUs'

South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, who recently endorsed Hillary Clinton for president, told NewsOne Now in a phone interview that rival Bernie Sanders' free public college plan would hurt Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

"If you say that you're going to have college -- free two-year college -- among public institutions, why would a student go to an HBCU? And most of which are private institutions," said Clyburn. "What will happen is these HBCUs will all close down all across America because they would not be able to afford to stay open."

HBCUs account for less than 3% of all of the universities and colleges in the U.S., but produce 22% of bachelor's degrees earned by African-Americans, according to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, a national organization that supports HBCUs. HBCUs are already facing serious economic difficulties due to low enrollment and tighter PLUS loan requirements that were passed by the Department of Education in 2011, according to the fund.

PLUS loans declined substantially at HBCUs in 2012 and 2013, according to the Institute of Education Sciences. That same year, enrollment also declined dramatically.

"If you tell me you're going to provide the resources for people to get these educations, than I'm all for it," Clyburn said.

Clyburn's comments come as Sanders has been trying to boost his appeal among black voters and expand his voting base as the Democratic primary expands to more diverse states. He's currently completing a "Feel the Bern" HBCU tour, in hopes of appealing to younger African-American voters.

[SOURCE]

Danny Glover Speech at Bernie Sanders Campaign Rally Greenville South Carolina

Watch Bernie Sanders supporter, Danny Glover's speech at a Sanders rally in Greenville South Carolina on 02/21/2016.

Why this Hillary Clinton supporter has much love for Killer Mike

Rapper Killer Mike (His Momma named him Micheal Render) has been a very vocal and active supporter of Bernie Sanders. As a guy who grew up listening to Rakim, Public Enemy, Poor Righteous Teachers, X Clan, and KRS-One, I'm no big fan of his music (I know I come off as a hating old man.). So why you ask would I, a Hillary Clinton supporter have so much respect for this young man?

Because he unlike many celebrity supporters has studied up on things and has a good idea of what is being discussed. When he appears on television, you don't have to worry about this intelligent, well-spoken man embarrassing black people. If you debate this man don't underestimate him and consider him just a rapper because he will destroy you with well thought out arguments.

Killer Mike can intelligently debate the issues and defend his stance on the issues. I can see this young man as a political contributor to a news network or working on or in campaigns one day. And yes, I can see him running for office.

So although I don't agree with him on this current Democratic primary (Go Hillary), I am very proud of these young black man.

George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports. Email: georgelcookiii@gmail.com

Eric Garner's daughter releases ad for Bernie Sanders.

Erica Garner stars in a new four-minute campaign ad for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, in an effort to spread Sanders's millennial success across all races.

Bernie Sanders challenged at Black America Forum

During a Black America Forum in Minneapolis Bernie Sanders was challenged by a woman who believes he has a reluctance to speak on specific black issues, and his habit of speaking in generalities when he does discuss those issues that do effect African Americans. Watch that exchange below.

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous endorses Bernie Sanders

MANCHESTER, N.H. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders Friday picked up the endorsement of former NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous.

“Bernie Sanders has been principled, courageous and consistent in fighting the evils that Dr. King referred to as the ‘giant triplets’ of racism, militarism and greed,” Jealous said. “Bernie Sanders has the courage to confront the institutionalized bias that stains our nation. Bernie Sanders is the type of leader we can trust to fight for the future of all our nation’s children as if they were his very own. It is for all these reasons that I am proud to endorse Bernie Sanders for president of these United States.”

Jealous was the youngest-ever president of the century-old NAACP, serving from 2008 to 2013. He’s credited with leading the storied civil rights group back to prominence.

“I think the proposals that we have brought forth in this campaign are proposals that will go a very, very long way to improving the lives of people of color in this nation,” Sanders said. The senator cited raising the minimum wage, ensuring pay equity for women, creating millions of decent paying jobs, Medicare for all and tuition-free public colleges and universities among the plans he’s put forward that would directly impact communities of color.

Jealous will travel to South Carolina on Saturday for a series of campaign stops and events throughout the Palmetto State.

To read Ben Jealous’ prepared remarks, click here.

Bernie Sanders: African-Americans will like me when they learn my record

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday that while he may be trailing among minority voters in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, that would change as soon as those voters learned more about him.

"When the African-American community becomes familiar with my congressional record and with our agenda and with our views on the economy and criminal justice, just as the general population has become more supportive, so will the African-American community, so will the Latino community. We have the momentum. We are on a path to victory," he said during the Democratic debate Sunday evening.

Read more: Sanders: African-Americans will like me when they learn my record

Bernie Sanders targets African Americans with new radio ad

Democrat Bernie Sanders has released a new radio ad targeting the African American community. The ad focuses on issues of interest to African Americans such as institutional racism, healthcare, education, mass incarceration, education, and jobs. Listen to the ad below:

Bernie Sanders keeps promise made in private to Sandra Bland’s mother

In an era when every moment is tweeted and politicized, Bernie Sanders elected not to capitalize on a meaningful meeting with the mother of Sandra Bland.

The chance encounter reportedly took place at East Street Café, a Thai restaurant at Union Station in Washington, D.C., five days before the first Democratic presidential debate.

The Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner, a pastor at St. John’s Church in downtown Houston, wrote in her blog about noticing the Vermont senator at another table while she was eating dinner with Geneva Reed-Veal, whose daughter became a face of the Black Lives Matter campaign following her death in police custody in July.

The pastor said she approached Sanders and asked if he would like to meet Reed-Veal and told him their group had asked if he would take a picture with them.

“He did not impose upon Ms. Geneva to ask for a picture of his own. He did not use the moment as an opportunity to promote his campaign,” she wrote. “He took no record; he made no statement. He did not try to turn it into a publicity stunt.”,/p>

Bonner, who is a Black Lives Matter activist, said she was impressed by everyone’s sincerity during the serendipitous moment.

The Democratic presidential candidate told Reed-Veal that the death of her daughter was inexcusable and promised he would continue to “say her name.” At the debate on Oct. 13 in Las Vegas, Sanders stayed true to his word when answering a question submitted by a law student through Facebook: “Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?”

Read more: Bernie Sanders keeps promise made in private to Sandra Bland’s mother

Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison endorses Bernie Sanders

Rep. Keith Ellison has become the second member of congress to endorse Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders for the 2016 election.

“I’m endorsing Bernie because he is talking about the issues that are important to American families,” Ellison told MSNBC in an email via his spokesperson. “His candidacy is important for many reasons, but I believe the most important part of his candidacy is that it has the ability to create a renaissance in voter participation, which was at its lowest in decades this past election cycle. We’ve all seen the massive crowds he is attracting, and I think that is a testament to his message connecting with people - people we will need to turn out in November.”

Bernie Sanders: I Don’t Owe #BlackLivesMatter An Apology

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said on NBC’s Meet the Press that he doesn’t believe that he owes the #BlackLivesMatter protest movement an apology, even though his own staff already apologized to them.

Bernie Sanders platform for Racial Justice

Here is democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sander's platform for racial justice. I am not in any way endorsing Sanders, I will post all the candidates stances on the issue of racial justice that I can find. I am posting Bernie Sander's platform first for two reasons, first as he has taken a beating on the Black Lives Matter Movement's issues, and secondly because he has actually posted his platform on racial justice. George L. Cook III, AfricanAmericanReports.com.

Bernie Sanders platform for Racial Justice

We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.

PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

PERPETRATED BY THE STATE

Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Samuel DuBose. We know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. The chants are growing louder. People are angry and they have a right to be angry. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

PERPETRATED BY EXTREMISTS

We are far from eradicating racism in this country. In June, nine of our fellow Americans were murdered while praying in a historic church because of the color of their skin. This violence fills us with outrage, disgust, and a deep, deep sadness. Today in America, if you are black, you can be killed for getting a pack of Skittles during a basketball game. These hateful acts of violence amount to acts of terror. They are perpetrated by extremists who want to intimidate and terrorize black and brown people in this country.

ADDRESSING PHYSICAL VIOLENCE

It is an outrage that in these early years of the 21st century we are seeing intolerable acts of violence being perpetuated by police, and racist terrorism by white supremacists.

A growing number of communities do not trust the police and law enforcement officers have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police sworn to protect and serve our communities, is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. We need a societal transformation to make it clear that black lives matter, and racism cannot be accepted in a civilized country.

• We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies.
• We must invest in community policing. Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together. Among other things, that means increasing civilian oversight of police departments.
• We need police forces that reflect the diversity of our communities.
• At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter we will reinvent how we police America.
• We need to federally fund and require body cameras for law enforcement officers to make it easier to hold them accountable.
• Our Justice Department must aggressively investigate and prosecute police officers who break the law and hold them accountable for their actions.
• We need to require police departments and states to provide public reports on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody.
• We need new rules on the allowable use of force. Police officers need to be trained to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people who have mental illnesses.
• States and localities that make progress in this area should get more federal justice grant money. Those that do not should get their funding slashed.
• We need to make sure the federal resources are there to crack down on the illegal activities of hate groups.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE

DISENFRANCHISEMENT

In the shameful days of open segregation, “literacy” laws were used to suppress minority voting. Today, through other laws and actions — such as requiring voters to show photo ID, discriminatory drawing of Congressional districts, not allowing early registration or voting, and purging voter rolls — states are taking steps which have a similar effect.

The patterns are unmistakable. An MIT paper found that African Americans waited twice as long to vote as whites. Wait times of as long as six or seven hours have been reported in some minority precincts, especially in “swing” states like Ohio and Florida. Thirteen percent of African-American men have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions.

This should offend the conscience of every American.

The fight for minority voting rights is a fight for justice. It is inseparable from the struggle for democracy itself.

We must work vigilantly to ensure that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely and easily.

ADDRESSING POLITICAL VIOLENCE

• We need to re-enfranchise the more than two million African Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction.
• Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act’s “pre-clearance” provision, which extended protections to minority voters in states where they were clearly needed.
• We must expand the Act’s scope so that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely.
• We need to make Election Day a federal holiday to increase voters’ ability to participate.
• We must make early voting an option for voters who work or study and need the flexibility to vote on evenings or weekends.
• We must make no-fault absentee ballots an option for all Americans.
• Every American over 18 must be registered to vote automatically, so that students and working people can make their voices heard at the ballot box.
• We must put an end to discriminatory laws and the purging of minority-community names from voting rolls.
• We need to make sure that there are sufficient polling places and poll workers to prevent long lines from forming at the polls anywhere.

LEGAL VIOLENCE

Millions of lives have been destroyed because people are in jail for nonviolent crimes. For decades, we have been engaged in a failed “War on Drugs” with racially-biased mandatory minimums that punish people of color unfairly.

It is an obscenity that we stigmatize so many young Americans with a criminal record for smoking marijuana, but not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for causing the near collapse of our entire economy. This must change.

If current trends continue, one in four black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime. Blacks are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites and a report by the Department of Justice found that blacks were three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop, compared to white motorists. African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police. This is an unspeakable tragedy.

It is morally repugnant and a national tragedy that we have privatized prisons all over America. In my view, corporations should not be allowed to make a profit by building more jails and keeping more Americans behind bars. We have got to end the private-for-profit prison racket in America. Profiting off the misery of incarcerated people is immoral and it is immoral to take campaign contributions from the private prison industry or its lobbyists.

The measure of success for law enforcement should not be how many people get locked up. We need to invest in drug courts as well as medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that people struggling with addiction do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.

For people who have committed crimes that have landed them in jail, there needs to be a path back from prison. The federal system of parole needs to be reinstated. We need real education and real skills training for the incarcerated.

We must end the over incarceration of nonviolent young Americans who do not pose a serious threat to our society. It is an international embarrassment that we have more people locked up in jail than any other country on earth – more than even the Communist totalitarian state of China. That has got to end.

We must address the lingering unjust stereotypes that lead to the labeling of black youths as “thugs.” We know the truth that, like every community in this country, the vast majority of people of color are trying to work hard, play by the rules and raise their children. It’s time to stop demonizing minority communities.

We must reform our criminal justice system to ensure fairness and justice for people of color.

ADDRESSING LEGAL VIOLENCE

• We need to ban prisons for profit, which result in an over-incentive to arrest, jail and detain, in order to keep prison beds full.
• We need to turn back from the failed “War on Drugs” and eliminate mandatory minimums which result in sentencing disparities between black and white people.
• We need to invest in drug courts and medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that they do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.
• We need to boost investments for programs that help people who have gone to jail rebuild their lives with education and job training.

ECONOMIC VIOLENCE

Weeks before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a union group in New York about what he called “the other America.”

“One America is flowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality,” King said. “That America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits. . . . But as we assemble here tonight, I’m sure that each of us is painfully aware of the fact that there is another America, and that other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.”

The problem was structural, King said: “This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.”

Eight days later, speaking in Memphis, King continued the theme. “Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day?” he asked striking sanitation workers. “And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation. These are facts which must be seen, and it is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis and a full-time job getting part-time income.”

King explained the shift in his focus: “Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?”

But what King saw in 1968 — and what we all should recognize today — is that it is necessary to try to address the rampant economic inequality while also taking on the issue of societal racism. We must simultaneously address the structural and institutional racism which exists in this country, while at the same time we vigorously attack the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality which is making the very rich much richer while everyone else – especially those in our minority communities – are becoming poorer.

In addition to the physical violence faced by too many in our country we need look at the lives of black children and address a few other difficult facts. Black children, who make up just 18 percent of preschoolers, account for 48 percent of all out-of-school suspensions before kindergarten. We are failing our black children before kindergarten. Black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students. Black girls were suspended at higher rates than all other girls and most boys. According to the Department of Education, African American students are more likely to suffer harsh punishments – suspensions and arrests – at school.

We need to take a hard look at our education system. Black students attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers, compared with white students. Black students were more than three times as likely to attend schools where fewer than 60 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements.

Communities of color also face the violence of economic deprivation. Let’s be frank: neighborhoods like those in west Baltimore, where Freddie Gray resided, suffer the most. However, the problem of economic immobility isn’t just a problem for young men like Freddie Gray. It has become a problem for millions of Americans who, despite hard-work and the will to get ahead, can spend their entire lives struggling to survive on the economic treadmill.

We live at a time when most Americans don’t have $10,000 in savings, and millions of working adults have no idea how they will ever retire in dignity. God forbid, they are confronted with an unforeseen car accident, a medical emergency, or the loss of a job. It would literally send their lives into an economic tailspin. And the problems are even more serious when we consider race.

Let us not forget: It was the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street that nearly drove the economy off of the cliff seven years ago. While millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes, life savings, and ability to send their kids to college, African Americans who were steered into expensive subprime mortgages were the hardest hit.

Most black and Latino households have less than $350 in savings. The black unemployment rate has remained roughly twice as high as the white rate over the last 40 years, regardless of education. Real African American youth unemployment is over 50 percent. This is unacceptable. The American people in general want change – they want a better deal. A fairer deal. A new deal. They want an America with laws and policies that truly reward hard work with economic mobility. They want an America that affords all of its citizens with the economic security to take risks and the opportunity to realize their full potential.

ADDRESSING ECONOMIC VIOLENCE

• We need to give our children, regardless of their race or their income, a fair shot at attending college. That’s why all public universities should be made tuition free.
• We must invest $5.5 billion in a federally-funded youth employment program to employ young people of color who face disproportionately high unemployment rates.
• Knowing that black women earn 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, we must pass federal legislation to establish pay equity for women.
• We must prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history.
• We need to ensure access to quality affordable childcare for working families.

Black Lives Matter Interrupts & Takes Over Bernie Sanders Rally

Black Lives Matter members momentarily took over a Bernie Sanders Rally in Seattle, WA. Several Black Lives Matter members took the stage and microphone to speak, listen to one of the organizers 4 minute speech at that event below:

Bernie Sanders Taps African-American As Campaign Press Secretary

The presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced Saturday it had tapped a young, black criminal justice advocate to serve as its national press secretary.

Symone Sanders, who is of no relation to the junior senator, serves as the national youth chair of the Coalition on Juvenile Justice, a nonprofit that focuses on appropriate care of American youth in the justice system.

She introduced the presidential contender at a rally in Seattle on Saturday that drew 12,000 people -- the largest crowd to attend a Sanders event yet -- with remarks about racial inequality.

"You know which candidate for president will shut down the private prison industry," she said, according to CNN. "You know which candidate will have the courage to fight unjust mandatory minimums and the death penalty."

Though Symone Sanders began to interview for the position several weeks ago, her hiring suggests the campaign is working to attune itself more closely with the cause of Black Lives Matter protesters, who interrupted the candidate for a second time at a different Seattle rally on Saturday. Both the senator and his fellow Democratic presidential hopeful Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley were interrupted by Black Lives Matters protesters at a Netroots Nation event in Phoenix last month.

Read more: Bernie Sanders Taps African-American Organizer As Campaign Press Secretary