I think both sides of this issue have been incredibly myopic (to use a word someone applied accurately to me recently on here).

In terms of the general populace, the undertones of racism are, of course, very strong, as this OP demonstrates. People try to say the protesters are shills for another candidate, or idiots "ruining their own movement" or somehow "hurting their own people," as if they're spokeswomen for all black people. It's so insulting to read, dehumanizing these women and using it to condemn large groups of people. It's offensive on all fronts, and it's ignorant. But most importantly it's used to allow people with privilege to ignore what these protesters were saying. The method, which many disagree with, is being used to allow those of us with privilege to stick our fingers in our ears as to what those protesters were saying. As the mods have indicated, we need to listen. LISTEN!

However, the response here is also very near-sighted. The way the events are broken down by the mods are so one-sided as to be ridiculous. Keep in mind that these protesters entered the event, shouted down Bernie (who was invited to speak), and then shouted down event runners, even when they offered to let the protesters have the stage. The response was to call the audience, who was annoyed that the person they came to see couldn't speak, a bunch of white supremacists. I'm sorry, but that is a very rude thing to do, and while I think it's important for protesters to get their voices out, to paint the protesters as infallible agents of change and Bernie/the audience as some status quo oppressors is unfair. It sounds like all the people there tried to accommodate the protesters when they had no obligation to. They participated in a four+ moment of silence for people who took over the event, when they were specifically there to hear another person entirely speak on Medicare. The protesters weren't just in a public space. We still need to listen to them, but the way the event is described in this post sounds too one-sided to be useful in encouraging that.

Also, the implication that Sanders lacked a policy and thus was worthy of attack seems similarly narrow-minded. The interruption was August 8th. Sanders gave a very thorough speech with policy suggestions on the 25th of July. I am not saying Sanders is above reproach, especially on racial issues. He tries to frame everything in terms of economics, and can ignore the ways race reaches beyond a Marxist lens. I think Sanders needs to be criticized as much as anyone, and the way many supporters have tried to appeal to people in BLM and other minority groups can be described as condescending and implicitly racist in many ways. But I'm still kind of frustrated with the way the mods have painted this whole picture. I know this is a self-described circlejerk sub, but we can be somewhat reasonable and critical of both sides without forsaking non-racist social justice values.