
Tia Oso (c) grabs mic, demands Martin O'Malley (r) embrace "Black Lives Matter" - Raw photo
CHICAGO - More and more Americans are publicly debating racial issues, as protests and demonstrations provoked by violent incidents are reported daily in the news. But Dr. Eric Wallace, a black conservative leader in Chicago's southern suburbs, says the strife is not as much between races as it is between worldviews and ideologies.
"The fact is people are being paid to protest. It's become a job for some folks. And I know it sounds somewhat cynical, but I can't help but ask 'Are these people really as upset as they seem'? Or are they getting paid to be upset? or is it false anger?" Wallace said in an interview with Illinois Review.
Wallace was responding to a question about his thoughts on what happened over the weekend at the Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix, when Democrat presidential contestants Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders faced an angry crowd that insisting they acknowledge "Black Lives Matter."
O'Malley was booed and jeered and a vocal group in the crowd was shouting "Black Lives Matter." O'Malley responded with "Black Lives Matter. White Lives Matter. All Lives Matter."
His response heightened the crowd's outrage. CNN reported:
"Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" they shouted toward O'Malley, and began a call-and-repeat rallying cry that activists have been using in the wake of the death of 28-year-old Sandra Bland, who died in police custody last week. "If I die in police in custody!" one of the chants went, "Burn everything down! That's the only way mother******* like you listen!"
Conference organizers begged them to allow O'Malley to respond.
"I think all of us as Americans have a responsibility to recognize the pain and the grief throughout our country from all of the lives that have been lost to violence, whether that's violence at the hands at the police or whether that's violence at the hands of civilians," O'Malley said, before being interrupted again.
"Don't generalize this s***!" one person shouted back.
And the crowd's intensity grew as a black woman, Tia Oso, took to the stage in a "Black Love" t-shirt, grabbed the mic and demanded O'Malley agree that only "Black Lives Matter."
O'Malley stood in silence and then publicly apologized for being insensitive and saying, "All Lives Matter."
Wallace said he's certain that something else is going on behind the scenes of these publicly-staged outbursts.