Will Biden Take Up Van Jones’ Challenge, Roadmap for Overcoming “White Liberal” Racial Politics?
CNN political commentator Van Jones recently issued a stark challenge to, and indeed indictment of, supposedly well-meaning White America, speaking in the wake of the police murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and in the midst of mass uprisings and protests responding to the never-ending violence against African Americans.
He states most directly that America’s biggest obstacle to achieving racial justice in America, to making Black lives matter, isn’t so much the overt hood-wearing or Confederate flag brandishing white supremacist but rather the “the white liberal Hillary Clinton supporter.” He made reference to Amy Cooper, the white woman who recently called the police claiming an African American man was threatening her life while she walked her unleashed dog in Central Park. Video evidence confirms the man was not threatening her all, only that she was playing the “race card,” the “threatened white womanhood card,” because she was angry that the man had asked her to obey the law and leash her dog while he watched birds in the designated area.
Jones sees Cooper as representative of the stance of white liberals who deny being racist, claim not to see color, but at a moment’s notice when, it suits their purpose, will avail themselves of the powerful…
