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Presidential Candidates Must Address White Supremacy, Says #BlackLivesMatter Activist
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, Mara Jacqueline Willaford and two other members of Seattle’s Black Lives Matter chapter captured national media attention when they interrupted presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders’ rally in Seattle and demanded the microphone.
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After moments of arguing, Sanders eventually conceded the microphone to Marissa Johnson, Willaford’s colleague, who addressed his supporters over the boos and jeers launched back at them in return.
In an interview with the Post, Willaford explained that, “Actually one of the great things that came out of this action was that it did shine a spotlight on (Seattle) and on all the racism that is very rampant in our city.”
“We actually have a lot of the reforms that other cities are currently fighting for,” said Willaford, pointing to Seattle’s Community Police Commission (CPC) and housing affordability policies—two issues that Oakland activists are currently fighting to improve.
“It hasn’t worked,” she said.
In the moments the activists were on stage, Johnson welcomed Sanders to Seattle, characterizing the city as a place riddled with police brutality, disparate school suspension rates for Black students and intense gentrification. The group ended the action with a four-and-a-half minute moment of silence in commemoration of Michael Brown.
As several in the crowd continued their disapproving chants throughout the remembrance, tears ran down Willaford’s face as she kept her eyes shut and a Black power fist raised in the air.
According to Willaford, Seattle’s Black population continues to face massive displacement from gentrification because “a lot of housing affordability efforts are pretty colorblind” while the changes to policing recommended by the CPC go un-entertained by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.
While many subsequently questioned and criticized the actions of Black Lives Matter for targeting Sanders, who is widely considered the most progressive presidential candidate in the race, notable changes were made to Sanders’ campaign within days after the protest.
Willaford pointed out that not only are Sanders’ staffers now more active about meeting with Black activists across the country, the action actually played a role in pushing the candidate to alter his platform.
“(Sanders) adding the racial justice component to his platform is huge. The stance that he’s taking against the privatization of prisons is huge,” said Willaford, referring to the new additions that Sanders made to his campaign after the Seattle rally.
“All of that being said, for us it was never about Bernie Sanders,” she said. “I think the platform changes are positive, but I’m much more interested in the conversations that the nation is now having. I think those are much more significant than any one particular political candidate.”
The small Seattle action helped spark a national dialogue around respectability, electoral politics and race in the United States that greatly impacted the platforms and language of every candidate in the presidential race.
While their triumph has become clear after weeks of letting the media dust settle, the question remains about what made the chemistry between Marissa Johnson, Mara Willaford and Bernie Sanders such an effective recipe for igniting a national conversation.
“I think it really hit a nerve for the nation to see two young, extremely femme Black women take power away from and completely assert power and authority in a space that we’re really not even supposed to be in,” said Willaford.
She cited the responses that the action received from Republican presidential candidates, who were “very fixated on the masculinity of Bernie Sanders and what we did to his masculinity” as a result of interrupting his speech.
According to Willaford, by organizing at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement and asserting their power, Black women are destabilizing the country’s traditional power structure and forcing the nation to question its own framework.
This threatened power structure was caught on camera, for example, when the nation witnessed a Waller County police officer—a white man—violently arrest Sandra Bland—a Black woman—after she refused his order to put out her cigarette.
“The phrase ‘All of us or none of us’ is so powerful because it speaks to the reality of this movement,” said Willaford. “And the reality is that Black women, Black trans folks and especially Black trans women are on the front lines, and they’re holding it down.”
When asked why Black Lives Matter seemed focused on Sanders, Willaford explained, “Bernie Sanders, at the time that we did this action, made much more sense than Hillary Clinton because he’s her quote-unquote radical opponent.”
“He’s to the left of (Clinton). So if he’s refusing to talk about race and if he’s cancelling meetings with Black Lives Matter activists, then I don’t think she would have had any need to respond,” she said.
Meanwhile, Willaford believes targeting Republican presidential candidates would have the opposite effect of what Black Lives Matter wants, potentially invigorating the Republican voter base.
She likened focusing on Republican candidates such as Donald Trump and Jeb Bush to the recent battle to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol.
“People like to fixate on the Confederate flag the same way people like to fixate on the Republicans,” she said. “I think we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice by fixating on obvious symbols of white supremacy to the exclusion of everything else about this country.”
Rather than directly challenge that which is furthest from its shared ideologies, Black Lives Matter seems to prefer questioning the status quo of what is generally considered progressive in order to force people to reassess their political perceptions.
Last week, for example, members of Black Lives Matter’s Cleveland chapter disrupted a Hillary Clinton campaign event demanding her to “divest from private prisons, invest in black trans women.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, the organization stated the reason they targeted the candidate with this demand was, “Since Hillary Clinton makes equality for women a critical tenet of her campaign, we demand that Clinton—and our movement for Black lives—center the Black transgender women so often left out of conversations about gender and racial equality.”
As previously mentioned, however, while impacting platforms has been positive for the Black Lives Matter movement, it is the outcome of these conversations that Willaford and many others are more interested in advancing.
“The question that I’d like folks to ask themselves is do we, as Black people, need Bernie Sanders or any other candidate,” said Willaford. She explained that she supports “Black self-determination and Black folks working to change the system whether it is in a reformist or revolutionary way.”
“In our country we’re very fixated on electoral politics,” she said. “We’re so colonized in the way we think that it’s very hard for people to think outside the box and to really envision a different world beyond just voting.”
“I think unknowns really scare people,” said Willaford. “And there’s a lot of unknowns in getting free.”
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HISTORY MADE: Keisha Lance Bottoms Becomes First Black Woman Elected Governor in American History
ATLANTA DAILY WORLD — History has been made in Georgia. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, has been elected governor of Georgia, becoming the first Black woman in American history to win the highest executive office in any state.
History has been made in Georgia. Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, has been elected governor of Georgia, becoming the first Black woman in American history to win the highest executive office in any state.
Bottoms’ victory over Republican businessman Rick Jackson represents a defining moment in American politics, breaking a barrier that has stood since the nation’s founding and placing Georgia at the center of a historic political transformation.
For generations, Black women have played a critical role in American democracy, organizing communities, leading movements, mobilizing voters and shaping public policy. Yet despite their contributions, no Black woman had ever been elected governor of a U.S. state.
Until now.
Bottoms’ election also makes her the first woman and first Black person elected governor of Georgia, a state whose political history has been deeply shaped by slavery, segregation, the civil rights movement and the long struggle for equal representation.
Her victory carries particular significance in a state where Black women have been among the most influential forces in voter registration, political organizing and Democratic electoral success.
A fifth-generation Georgian, Bottoms previously served as Atlanta’s 60th mayor from 2018 to 2022. During her administration, she led the city through the COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide protests over racial injustice and a period of significant economic and population growth.
Following her time as mayor, Bottoms served as a senior adviser in President Joe Biden’s administration before returning to Georgia politics to pursue the governorship.
Her campaign focused on expanding access to health care, strengthening public education, increasing wages and addressing the rising cost of living. She also advocated for expanding Medicaid, raising Georgia’s minimum wage to $15 an hour and increasing compensation for teachers and other public employees.
Bottoms faced Jackson, a wealthy health care executive who invested heavily in his campaign and positioned himself as a political outsider. The contest drew national attention as Democrats sought to reclaim the Georgia governor’s office after more than two decades of Republican control.
The historic nature of Bottoms’ victory extends well beyond party politics.
Georgia, once at the center of some of America’s most consequential civil rights battles, has now elected a Black woman to lead its state government. It is a milestone that reflects generations of political participation, organizing and leadership by Black Georgians.
For Atlanta, the moment is especially significant. A former mayor of the city that helped shape the modern civil rights movement will now lead the entire state.
Bottoms’ election opens a new chapter in Georgia’s political history and establishes a milestone that will be remembered far beyond the 2026 election.
For continuing election coverage and results, visit AtlantaDailyWorld.com/election26.
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Oakland NAACP, BWOPA Speak Out Against Alleged Harassment of Black Women Political Leaders
The Oakland NAACP and the Oakland/Berkeley chapter of Black Women Organized for Political Action have issued a joint statement condemning a pattern of harassment, intimidation, and discrimination directed at Black women in politics. Leadership from both organizations noted that these concerns reflect a rise in online hostility and political attacks against public servants. The allegations emerged amid a contentious race for the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education, prompting a public debate over accountability and political conduct. Read more to learn how the involved parties have responded.
The Oakland branch of the NAACP and the Oakland/Berkeley chapter of Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA) have issued a joint statement condemning what they describe as harassment, intimidation and discrimination targeting Black women in politics.
Founded in 1968, BWOPA is a California-based nonprofit advocacy and membership organization that is focused on increasing Black women’s participation and influence in the political process.
Danielle Motley-Lewis, president of BWOPA’s Oakland/Berkeley chapter, told California Black Media (CBM) that the statement reflects growing concerns about online hostility and political attacks directed at Black women candidates, elected officials and public servants.
“These allegations deserve serious attention and should not be dismissed as ordinary political disagreements,” the organizations said in their statement.
The concerns have surfaced amid a contentious race for the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) Board of Education’s District 6 seat, where candidate LeAna Powell has reported experiencing harassment during her campaign.
Powell is running against Alexandra Williams and incumbent Valarie Bachelor, the school board’s vice president. All three candidates are Black women.
Motley-Lewis said the organizations’ statement addresses concerns extending beyond the school board contest, although Powell’s experiences helped bring the issue into focus.
“I could only speak to what I witnessed on social media. There were various types of harassment online,” Motley-Lewis said of the back-and-forth about the candidates online.
“It was unnerving.”
Powell, a former aide to former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, previously filed an informal complaint with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission alleging that Thao, then a City Council member, pressured city employees to work on her mayoral campaign.
Thao was recalled in November 2024 and left office Dec. 17 of that year. She subsequently faced federal charges related to an alleged bribery scheme. The criminal proceedings are separate from the dispute involving Powell’s school board campaign.
Powell also filed a complaint with the NAACP concerning what she described as harassment during her campaign.
Among those publicly criticizing Powell is Brandon Harami, a former Oakland mayoral staffer and LGBTQ+ advocate who said he previously worked with Powell in Thao’s office.
In a Sept. 27 Facebook post, Harami questioned Powell’s qualifications, judgment and political associations.
“District 6 candidate for School Board LeAna Powell does not have the maturity nor spine required to be on the school board,” Harami wrote.
Motley-Lewis said the organizations had documented or witnessed conduct they considered troubling, although she emphasized that their concerns were not limited to Harami or Powell.
Harami has denied the allegations and accused the organizations of misrepresenting his conduct.
In an Oct. 11 Instagram post, he called the joint statement a political smear and demanded that BWOPA and the Oakland NAACP retract it.
He argued that the organizations’ characterization of his actions unfairly portrayed him as having a history of harassment and discrimination. He also contended that the allegations were being used to silence LGBTQ+ voices.
Motley-Lewis said she declined Harami’s request for a retraction because the statement addressed a broader pattern of conduct affecting Black women in politics.
“I was open to brokering that conversation. However, (Harami) was unwilling,” Motley-Lewis said. “He did reach out to BWOP to retract our statement, and I advised him that I would not be doing that. The statement that he was included in (addressed) a broader problem that is experienced by various women.”
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COMMENTARY: Valarie Bachelor and Jennfier Brouhard are Excellent School Board Members and Deserve to Be Reelected
The Oakland Unified School District recently achieved a major milestone by escaping 22 years of state control and opening the school year with a teacher in every classroom. Incumbents Jennifer Brouhard and Valarie Bachelor are seeking reelection to the school board after overseeing balanced budgets, averting labor strikes, and reversing previous decisions to close local elementary schools. While the board now focuses on student-centered programs and school-based health facilities, a new wave of opposition candidates backed by wealthy tech donors has emerged. Read more about the shifting dynamics in this local election.
The Oakland schools have excellent leadership right now. I know it’s hard to believe – because there is so much wrong with the national education picture. But sometimes good things do happen locally.
This school year:
- The Oakland Unified School District escaped from state control after 22 years.
- Every classroom had a teacher at the beginning of the year, unlike past years when many classes started the year with day-to-day substitute teachers.
- Dr. Denise Saddler, an African American woman, is leading the district as superintendent now. She was an excellent choice with vast understanding of Oakland, of schools, and of educational systems locally and nationally.
- The school board and teachers managed to avert a teachers’ strike by some strategizing, listening and compromising.
- The school board does not plan to close more schools. For the first time in decades, those in charge of the district were not discussing closures.
The two women leading the school board are excellent educators themselves.
Board President Jennifer Brouhard (District 2) served as an Oakland teacher and was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching and the U.C. Berkeley Social Science Project Teacher of the Year Award.
When Brouhard joined the board four years ago, she voted to reverse the decision of the previous board which had planned to close Brookfield, Carl B. Munck, Grass Valley, Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy and Horace Mann elementary. Half the students at Carl Munck and at least a third of the students at several others were African American.
In refusing to close schools, she pointed out that in Oakland and other districts it has been Black and Brown students who have been most affected and that closing schools does not save money.
Then, she focused funding on classrooms rather than paying outside consultants. For that, she and her colleagues have incurred the wrath of real estate developers and school privatizers who want to get their hands on public property.
Board Vice President Valerie Bachelor (District 6) has worked on important facilities projects. She helped to set up the first school-based dental project at Frick United Academy of Language, an Oakland middle school. She championed the Melrose Leadership Academy groundbreaking and the Skyline dining facilities.
Bachelor facilitated a balanced budget, which was pivotal in helping the district finally end state control. She also worked to direct funding toward student-centered programs like the Black Thriving Community Schools Program, instead of spending money on the never-ending. highly paid outside consultants.
The people financing the opposition candidates are Ryan Graciano, co-founder of Credit Karma, which made $ 2.7 billion last year; and Gagan Biyani, who says he became a millionaire at age 25.
The literature produced on behalf of the opposition supports closing schools, which harms students, and advocates expenditures that would put OUSD back under state control.
To read more, go to Education Week, “The Harm of School Closures Can Last a Lifetime, New Research Shows” (2024), www.edweek.org/leadership/the-harm-of-school-closures-can-last-a-lifetime-new-research-shows/2024/06
Dr. Kitty Kelly is a Professor of Education and Urban Studies. Dr. Kimberly Mayfield is Dean at Kalmanovitz School of Education, Saint Mary’s College of California.
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