Three activists with Black Lives Matter in South Bend, Indiana,Marcus Washington, Roger Calderon and Yemoja Redding recently gave their views of outgoing mayor Pete Buttigieg, a candidate for president in the 2020 Democratic Party primary campaign.
What is your assessment of the mayor?
Marcus – Kind of. I think he is running the exact campaign he actually knows how to run. And that campaign is not looking at … his blind spot. He doesn’t know what black people’s issues are. He is only able to filter it through what a Harvard Rhodes scholar would be able to filter. [Buttigieg is] not surrounding himself with the downtrodden that are disenfranchised and don’t have a voice. The people that need him he’s not surrounding himself with.
Is what the country sees of Buttigieg on TV not what South Bend sees?
Marcus – Kind of. I think he is running the exact campaign he actually knows how to run. And that campaign is not looking at … his blind spot. He doesn’t know what black people’s issues are. He is only able to filter it through what a Harvard Rhodes scholar would be able to filtIs what the country sees of Buttigieg on TV not what South Bend sees?er. [Buttigieg is] not surrounding himself with the downtrodden that are disenfranchised and don’t have a voice. The people that need him he’s not surrounding himself with.
Roger Calderon – One of the discussions that’s happening right now in South Bend is what are we going to do with homeless people? A couple of years ago, Pete Buttigieg booted [homeless people] from this sort of makeshift bridge … and that’s an issue that is still being dealt with. Pete Buttigieg really thought that South Bend was going to be his “horse to run,” the thing he would ride into victory and that’s not going to happen. Pete Buttigieg is only going to come to South Bend when there’s a photo opportunity. The last time he was here, he realized everybody wanted to yell at him.
What was your reaction to the 2011 video of Buttigieg’s comments on poor black children and education?
Yemoja Redding – South Bend’s high schools are No. 44 of the best high schools In Indiana. The total minority enrollment is 61%, and 58% of that enrollment are disadvantaged with a math and reading performance as low as 20%. Not even half of the schools’ population is college bound, ranking considerably low at 30%. And that’s a school on what is considered to be the good side of town. But if you haven’t already, look at the private schools’ stats. The numbers are noticeably different. I wonder why. Could it be the I.E.P.’s for black and brown boys and girls?