Once in a while, there’s a glimmer of hope where we expected none. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) actually seems to be trying to get what #BlackLivesMatter is all about. At his Town Hall, televised on CNN on Tuesday, July 12, Heather Tarrant, a white Republican from New York City, asked, “Do you know what we mean when we say ‘Black Lives Matter?'”
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHazMTq9Vro
His response showed that he actually might, although defeating Hillary Clinton is a higher priority for him. Ms. Tarrant began her question by referring to a recent Ryan speech in which he said, “Let justice be done.” So, first, Ryan said that he meant, “We need to stop hardening ourselves into a corner.” He added that we need to listen to one another and show respect for opposing views.
“You can’t blame #BlackLivesMatter for the Dallas shooting.”
Ryan rejected the claim of some conservatives that the protesters were to blame for the deaths of five police officers in Dallas. At the same time, he emphasized, we can’t blame the actions of a few bad cops on all officers. “You don’t want to paint with too broad a brush,” he added.
The meaning of #BlackLivesMatter
Ryan responded to this specific question, “There are a lot of people who feel that they are less safe in this country because of the color of their skin. And that’s a problem that a lot of people feel that way. … We need to figure out what to do about it.”
He went on to say that we must listen and understand the perspective of the people who feel unsafe. Ms. Tarrant rephrased her question to ask what Ryan heard when people said “Black lives matter.” He quickly answered that people feel discriminated against and feel unsafe because of the color of their skin. He added that we have to resolve the problem.
“Why don’t we stop saying things that we know enrage people?”
Jake Tapper followed up by asking whether Ryan disagrees with Trump’s claim that “BlackLivesMatter is divisive. Ryan wouldn’t take the bait. He wanted to focus on unifying people, not on who is divisive. He noted that the frequent white response, “All lives matter,” just enrages everybody.
He called for inclusiveness. “Why don’t we stop kind of enraging everybody” by saying things that we know will trigger that response. Ryan added that Congress was discussing legislation to improve police practices.
Supporting “that racist candidate.”
But don’t expect Ryan to start singing “Kumbayah” quite yet. Earlier in the program, another Republican asked how Ryan could support Trump, whom he described as “openly racist.” Ryan did not dispute Trump’s racism. His answer was that a vote against Trump is a vote for Clinton. “It’s a binary choice,” he said. He would rather have Donald Trump pick the next Supreme Court justice instead of Clinton.
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