Show of support for Pete Buttigieg from African-Americans but divisions remain in South Bend

SOUTH BEND — African-American leaders gathered Wednesday night to counter what they said was a national media narrative that Mayor Pete Buttigieg has little support from black city residents. They talked about Buttigieg programs aimed at helping neighborhoods, and they relayed stories of their positive experiences with his administration during his two terms as mayor.

But it didn’t take long for lingering divisions in the city to surface. Protesters from Black Lives Matter South Bend frequently interrupted the event as they stood in the back of a room at the Charles Martin Youth Center, holding signs and yelling things to contradict the speakers throughout the nearly hourlong program. They interjected comments about police, the homeless and poverty.

About 10 minutes into the event, one of the protesters grabbed the cordless microphone from speaker Sharon McBride, a Common Council member who recently campaigned for Buttigieg in South Carolina, prompting a woman to come after him with her cane raised in the air.

The protester, who wore a “Black Lives Matter South Bend” shirt, yelled repeatedly into the microphone, “This is a farce!” before others managed to restrain him and rip the microphone from his hand. He was allowed to remain in the room for the rest of the event.

Pete BuddyJig is the man. NO, wait — he’s one of two.

But seriously folks, I hope he gets in. Was that maybe a bad choice of words?

Oh dang it: all seriousness aside — he is the only white one who can be the standard-barer. I always knew it had to be someone with a vag, or someone with extra melanin, or maybe a sexual switch-hitter. 2020 has never been open to someone who is male, pale or stale. In ButtyJig you get the switch-hitter at on top, and then maybe a vagina or perhaps a skin person, or both.

All this is in the Constitution, of course, /sarc

More from Black Lives Matter South Bend

Black Lives Matter-South Bend fully supports the actions of our members and allies at the Pete for America press conference held in South Bend, IN yesterday. This protest represents only a fraction of the longstanding pain many Black, Brown, and poor citizens endure in Mayor Pete’s South Bend. Mr. Buttigieg’s pattern of mismanagement and disregard for issues that affect many Black citizens include zero accountability for the police department and its Chief, zero implicit bias testing for officers, zero effort toward a democratically-elected Civilian Review Board with subpoena power, zero urgency in addressing housing the homeless, and zero effort in releasing “The Tapes.” We have called for these necessary changes, but Mr. Buttigieg has not answered sufficiently. If he truly cared about these issues -- if he cared about justice -- Mr. Buttigieg would have first been present at the meeting, and secondly have stood in the back of the room with us. Also, Black Lives Matter-South Bend does not espouse simplistic narratives of what someone must look like to stand up for injustices against Black, Brown and poor people. This is a fact that Mr. Buttigieg and his supporters should already know if they in fact support his so-called “Douglass Plan.”

Pete’s campaign team is pushing a false narrative that this was a violent act committed by a white, Bernie Sanders supporter, who snatched the microphone and pushed black women. Video clearly shows that he did not push anyone nor did he snatch the microphone from anyone’s hand. He grabbed it from the podium as the speaker and audience members attempted to stop a woman from hitting him with a cane. It is important to note that this man is a person of color. This man is also someone who lives in one of the poorest communities in the City of South Bend, sees homes being demolished, asbestos and debris from these demolitions spreading in the air without being properly sprayed (which is an environmental hazard), and the Mayor and his staff are doing little about it.

The event was a perfect example of Pete’s campaign strategy for Black America: 1) Prop up “Black Leaders,” most of whom are on his payroll, to speak on his behalf; 2) Speak about incremental changes at the end of his second term without addressing his years of neglect; 3) Ride his savior complex to the White House, while leaving his South Bend community broken and in disrepair.

What transpired last night is what participatory democracy looks like. It’s easy to focus on the particular protesters, but it takes courage to ask why there is still so much pain in poor communities. We ask people to embody this courage, to not be fooled by false promises and photo ops, and to understand the struggle our community continues to endure from the legacy of Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

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