Since Hillary is the all but inevitable Democratic nominee,
confronting two minor white male candidates, demanding they “say her
name” and come up with solutions that address white supremacy,
structural racism and the runaway police state is pretty much a
foolproof strategy to get noticed, and as Hillary did not attend
NetRoots, they got to do it without antagonizing the Clinton camp.
Hillary wisely covered her own ass by releasing a tweet that
unequivocally said “black lives DO matter.”
But all in all, the NetRootsNation confrontation wasn't the stirring
of black women activists “taking their rightful place at the front of
the progressive movement,” as one breathless tweet called it. It didn't
tell us anything we didn't know about O'Malley or Sanders, or about
hypocritical Hillary.
It was about flying the #BlackLivesMatter flag to jockey for
positions inside the machinery that is the Democratic party and its
affiliates.
-- Bruce A. Dixon, "NetRoots Nation Confrontation Wasn't About #BlackLivesMatter At All" (Black Agenda Report).