Hillary Clinton, who is routinely criticized for her lack of public availability, granted a private meeting on August 11 to activists from the group #BlackLivesMatter — a movement across the country well-known for its controversial methods of generating publicity.
This chapter, from Boston, appears to be backstage after an event in a private meeting with Clinton in Keene, New Hampshire. Clinton is speaking with an activist by the name of Julius Jones, according to CNN.
#BLM activists have protested speeches given by Clinton’s Democratic opponents, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, so perhaps she was trying to build good will to prevent that from happening in the future:
Clinton: I’m not telling you. I’m just telling you to tell me!
Protester: What I meant to say is, that this is, and has always been, a white problem of violence. It’s not… There’s not much that we can do to stop the violence against us.
Clinton: Well, OK, I understand. I understand what you’re saying.
Protester: Respectfully.
Clinton: Respectfully, if that is your position, then I will talk only to white people about how we are going to deal with very real problems.
Protester: That’s not what I mean. That’s not what I mean. That’s not what I mean. But, like, what I’m saying is what you just said was a form of victim blaming, right?
Clinton: (Rolls eyes.)
Protester: You were saying that what the #BlackLivesMatterMovement needs to do to change white hearts is..
Crosstalk
Clinton: Look, I don’t believe you change hearts. I believe you change laws, you change allocations of resources, you change the way systems operate. You’re not going to change every heart, you’re not. But, at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change some hearts, change some systems, and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them. To live up to their own God-given potential, to live safely without fear of violence in their own communities, to have a decent school, a decent house, or a decent future. So we can do it one of many ways, you know, you can keep the movement going, which you have started, and through it you may change some hearts. But if that’s all that happens, we’ll be back here in 10 years having the same conversation. Because we will not have all of the changes that you deserve to see happen because of your willingness to get out there and talk about this.
Watch the exchange below:
UPDATE: According to a post on Mediaite, the protester Clinton is speaking with is named Julius Jones. This post has been updated to reflect that.
Jones told CNN:
