If the sex education question to socialist Senator Bernie Sanders didn’t already set the tone in Monday night’s Iowa Brown and Black Forum on Fusion, the questions grew even more asinine during Hillary Clinton’s portion when questions on race ranged from hyping the dangers of “white terrorism and extremism” to what white privilege meant to her to the need for reparations.
Moments after Clinton took the stage, co-moderator Akliah Hughes invoked the Black Lives Matter movement and threw this softball to Clinton about how she would “prove” to voters that she valued the lives of African Americans: “All of the Democratic presidential candidates have said that black lives matter, even if they didn’t at first, but how will your administration specifically prove that?”
Co-moderator Rembert Browne received his first chance to speak with Clinton a few minutes later and he seized the opportunity by downplaying the threat of ISIS and how supposedly the bigger threat for minorities is violence by white people:
The danger of ISIS is clearly a major threat to American safety, but personally, I know many minorities who are much more concerned with racist attacks at the local level than radical Islamists, so just — question to put it plainly since often, issues of race are tiptoed, do you believe that white terrorism and extremism is as much a threat to some in this country as something like ISIS?
Just as Fusion did with the sex ed question, the far-left network utilized college students throughout the event and it turned to Drake University junior Thalia Anguiano for the last such one of the night.
Furthering show how out of touch the network is with the priorities of most American voters, the last question to come from a member of the audience was on white privilege and how Clinton has dealt with it in her life:
White privilege is a term that more people are talking openly these days. Certainly, people like me have long understood what it means. Secretary Clinton, can you tell us what the term white privilege means to you and can you give me an example from your life or career when you think you have benefitted from it?
The moderators ended their time with each of the candidates by having a “lightning round” and in Clinton’s, Browne brought up racial reparations and if the country could consider them in 2016: “Do you think 2016 is the year — kind of on the federal level we should start studying reparations?”
As MRC Latino’s Jorge Bonilla predicted earlier on Monday, it would have been almost foolish to expect hardhitting, substantive questions from the Fusion event. Needless to say, Bonilla’s predictions didn’t disappoint.
The relevant portions of the transcript from Fusion’s Iowa Brown and Black Forum on January 11 can be found below.
Fusion’s The Iowa Brown and Black Forum
January 11, 20169:29 p.m. Eastern
AKILAH HUGHES: All of the Democratic presidential candidates have said that black lives matter, even if they didn’t at first, but how will your administration specifically prove that?
(....)
9:37 p.m. Eastern
REMBERT BROWNE: The danger of ISIS is clearly a major threat to American safety, but personally, I know many minorities who are much more concerned with racist attacks at the local level than radical Islamists, so just — question to put it plainly since often, issues of race are tiptoed, do you believe that white terrorism and extremism is as much a threat to some in this country as something like ISIS?
(....)
9:41 p.m. Eastern
DRAKE UNIVERSITY STUDENT THALIA ANGUIANO: As Alicia mentioned, my name is Thalia Anguiano and I’m a junior here at Drake University and my question is for you and it is the following: White privilege is a term that more people are talking openly these days. Certainly, people like me have long understood what it means. Secretary Clinton, can you tell us what the term white privilege means to you and can you give me an example from your life or career when you think you have benefitted from it?
(....)
9:54 p.m. Eastern
BROWNE: Do you think 2016 is the year — kind of on the federal level we should start studying reparations?
