CORRECTION: In my original posting of this thread I left out Oregon - Racist cartoon of slaveholders Washington and Lee with bone-white skin in front of Oregon scenery by Crater Lake images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53a…
The only beings besides white people or plants shown on all 57 delegation shirts for Washington and Lee University's Mock Convention are a donkey, an elephant, dogs, cattle, fish, an eagle, a pig, horses, a lobster, a buffalo and a silhouetted cowboy of indeterminate background.
[Checks notes.] This is not an accurate or inclusive representation of the U.S. or its history, Virginia or its history, Lexington, Virginia, or its history, Washington and Lee University or its history, Mock Convention or its history, but a white supremacist version of them.
BREAKING NEWS: All 57 Mock Convention delegation shirts, including the 30 with white supremacist cartoons, have now been removed from the Mock Convention store. Not sure if this is temporary or if the shirts will be recalled or redesigned, waiting word from Washington and Lee.
BREAKING NEWS: So far delegation t-shirts displayed above and now removed from the Mock Convention store online will be sold on campus. Still not sure if any have been distributed. It's up to students to stand up for themselves by not buying/wearing them.
No one expects the Wayback Machine! web.archive.org/web/2019102722…
CORRECTION: Closer inspection of the Georgia design revealed an additional white supremacist symbol, the "White Power" OK hand sign. "OK" was not even a thing, not a word, not a phrase or usage during Washington's lifetime.
CORRECTION/UPDATE: Anti-Semitic white supremacist code number "110" found on numerals shown and legible on Massachusetts Mock Convention 2020 delegation shirt, on cartoon George Washington's and Robert E. Lee's Washington and Lee Generals football jerseys.
CORRECTION/UPDATE: In addition to the Georgia cartoon design showing George Washington making a "White Power" OK hand sign, upon closer inspection the Nevada and New Mexico Washington and Lee University Mock Convention 2020 delegation shirt cartoons also seem to show this.
BREAKING NEWS: Washington and Lee's Mock Convention distributed white supremacist shirts, plans to sell more at convention time Feb. 14-16, says Tuesday article. "Student members...were very excited after recently receiving their delegation t-shirts." mockconvention.com/festive-memora…
CLARIFYING NOTE: I haven't been able to verify yet if designs referenced exactly match all shirts distributed. W&L and Mock Convention can contact me easily if that is the case. They haven't. Links to images are to images used to advertise the shirts and are not hosted by me.
CLARIFYING NOTE (cont.): I'll be happy to see/report any new verifiable info I find. For now my notes and analysis are based on what Mock Convention posted at their store. There, images originally linked to specific publicly inaccessible item links at the University Store site.
CLARIFYING NOTE (cont. 2): I don't believe minor tweaks or alterations in the designs change the main thrust of my analysis of this collection of 30 shirts as containing white supremacist cartoons. It does seem just possible from the timing some may have occurred before printing.
CORRECTION: Upon closer examination, the New Jersey shirt design does not contain a fish, but a sand pail and beach ball which make a sort of negative fish shape, but aren't a fish. This eliminates one point of reference with the scene from "The Sopranos" I still think it evokes.
CORRECTION: Upon closer examination of the New Mexico design, I definitely can't tell at the available resolution what George Washington is doing with his left hand, or whether or not it is an OK hand sign. It still seems to resemble an OK hand sign but very well may not be.
UPDATE: As of Friday, Dec. 13, the shirt designs linked above have all returned to the Mock Convention store under "State Delegation Tees" tab, but the Georgia and Nevada designs, and only those, have been altered from links above, to eliminate OK hand signs by George Washington.
UPDATE (cont.): Again, I can't verify from here yet which Georgia or Nevada designs (with or without "White Power" OK hand signs by George Washington) may have been produced or distributed, or if both may have been. I still feel the 30 inappropriate designs should be scrapped.
UPDATE (cont. 2): The images linked above for Georgia and Nevada still show the designs with OK signs as I type this, again I didn't post and don't host these. New versions without can be seen at the Mock Convention Store under "State Delegation Tees" tab. mockconvention.com/store
Here's an image of the racist shirt worn by some in the Idaho delegation to Washington and Lee University's Mock Convention 2000. It was recalled and led to the firing of a University employee. Maybe repurposed R. Crumb? Don't look if you'd rather not. remembering.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/92
CORRECTION/UPDATE: I maybe didn't realize that was a gun George Washington is holding in the Texas cartoon design, and so didn't link it to Robert E. Lee's rope as two weapons they are holding as they loom over the W&L University campus morphed into the Alamo. Really troubling.
This thread on white supremacist cartoons on t-shirts designed/sold for Washington and Lee University's student-run Mock Convention in Feb. has publicly available facts, my analysis and opinions. Journalists may use info here with or without attribution to me, as they see fit.
Please don't attribute any fake quotes/opinions to me, and definitely don't attribute content on these shirts designed by Washington and Lee University's Mock Convention student group to me. I didn't design them and don't host them online. I don't work for W&L or Mock Convention.
I did my best to document and expose these white supremacist cartoons, as by the time I saw them, they had been public, posted online by adults at Washington and Lee University and Mock Convention 2020, for at least a month, and it seemed no one had spoken up or taken action.
UPDATE: The online version of a student magazine at Washington and Lee indicates there was at least attempted administration oversight of Mock Convention delegation shirt designs prior to Dec. 10, perhaps a few days before OK hand signs were removed from Georgia, Nevada designs.
UPDATE: .@donnabrazile's an announced speaker for Washington and Lee University's February student-run Mock Convention 2020 presidential prediction event. I ask Brazile to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if they're worn as planned. mockconvention.com/donna-brazile
@donnabrazile UPDATE: Fmr. Sen. @JoeforIndiana Donnelly (D) announced as speaker for Washington & Lee University's Feb. student Mock Convention 2020 presidential prediction event. I ask him to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if worn as planned. mockconvention.com/joe-donnelly
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana UPDATE: Biden campaign adviser @SymoneDSanders announced as speaker for Washington and Lee University's Feb. student Mock Convention presidential prediction event. I ask her to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if worn as planned.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders UPDATE: Fmr. ACLU President Nadine Strossen announced as speaker for Washington and Lee University's February student Mock Convention presidential prediction event. I ask her to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if worn as planned.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders UPDATE: Hillary campaign manager @PattiSolisDoyle announced as speaker for Washington and Lee University's Feb. student Mock Convention presidential prediction event. I ask her to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if worn as planned.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle NOTE: Eagle-eyed student @ snake_legion pointed out a main logo for Washington and Lee University's student Mock Convention 2020, used on sweatshirts, resembles a logo for Reagan '84, when the GOP easily defeated their opponent, Mondale, v.p. of the previous Democratic president. 
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle NOTE (cont.): So the logo seems to joke that @JoeBiden would be 2020's Mondale (or presumably any nominee would be). So why is Biden's campaign the only one sending a rep to Mock Con 2020 (especially when it could bring up this story of his Mock Con '84)? styleweekly.com/richmond/my-bo…
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden NOTE (concl.): Having worked for both Bernie and Biden, without question Symone Sanders's speaking at Mock Convention 2020 offers a lot to their event program and its prestige. And she'd give a fine speech. But does it really offer @JoeBiden or his campaign as much benefit?
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden BREAKING: Delegation shirts for Washington and Lee University's Feb. student Mock Convention 2020 which are main subject of this thread now on sale to public at Bookstore, first I've seen W&L advertise them. TX, NJ tees w/white supremacist cartoons shown.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden BREAKING: Tara McGowan @taraemcg, announced for next Thurs. night's media panel at Washington and Lee University's student Mock Convention, is founder/CEO of Acronym, parent of or investor in (not entirely clear which) Shadow, Iowa Caucus app company.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg UPDATE: @AndrewGillum announced as speaker for Washington and Lee University's Valentine's weekend student-run Mock Convention 2020 presidential prediction event. I ask Gillum to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if worn as planned.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum After the 2000 incident of a Mock Convention shirt with racist and sexist imagery, Washington and Lee University President and my friend John Elrod wrote in a letter to the W&L community, "We can and must do better. Life on this campus should not be a burden for any student…"
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum "…It should be an occasion for intellectual and moral growth, an expansion of our horizons and awareness of others, an occasion for making new and lasting friendships, an opportunity to better understand and care for people who are different from ourselves.…I ask…each of…"
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum "…to join me in an honest and concerted effort to make this community as good as its rhetoric by becoming a community which makes every one of its students feel truly welcomed and at home here." So far President Will Dudley has been publicly silent about this year's shirts.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum This despite the fact that the University approved these shirts with white supremacist cartoons in some capacity and is now selling them in the University Bookstore, a truly revolting development. So where do we look for leadership about how W&L moves forward justly and honestly?
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum We can look to the students, hoping they do right. We can look to the soul of the University, newly retired History professor and my friend Ted DeLaney, specifically his speech at 2018's Fall Convocation. Start at 19:45 to hear the intro, and watch it all. youtube.com/watch?v=TooSgw…
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum And just in case you don't have time to watch it all now, here are two important quotes: "[S]tudents have enormous power to determine what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the social practices of a university. If Washington and Lee strives for greater diversity…"
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum "…and is loyal to its values of honor and civility, the campus climate must be welcoming and accepting of all students." And, "You first-year students represent the legacy of those decisions to admit blacks [in 1965] and women students [in 1985].…[T]he inclusion of…"
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum "…minorities and women is the reason W&L is a nationally ranked institution. Had it remained all-male and all-white it is unlikely that any of you [brilliant] students would be seated here."
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum And I would add for myself, if Washington and Lee University begins to slip and lose its place of national prominence in higher education in the coming months and years, as the content of these disgusting shirts may indicate or preview, it will be because efforts to diversify…
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum …and attract the best students, staff, administration and faculty of all backgrounds lose steam or priority, or because the current name and brand of the University honoring Lee against his own wishes continues to hamper those good efforts.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum Promoting imagery and ideas like those on the 30 shirts shown in this thread is working for the decline and fall of Washington and Lee University. Proceeding past October 2020 as Washington and Lee University instead of another good new name moving ahead from Lee would be, too.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum UPDATE: March For Our Lives co-founder Cam Kasky announced as speaker for Washington and Lee University's Feb. student Mock Convention presidential prediction event. I ask him to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if worn as planned.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum I'm not saying anyone should not be speaking at this event, I'm asking everyone who speaks at or attends Washington and Lee University's student Mock Convention 2020, particularly my fellow Democrats, to speak out against and discourage any white supremacist displays as you can.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum Good news for announced speakers is you could get together to ask W&L and Mock Con to withdraw these shirts. You could say it publicly now. And I think and hope you will find most at W&L not white supremacists, I won't guess now why W&L and Mock Con are trying to manipulate them.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum UPDATE: Comedian/@TheDailyShow host @Trevornoah announced as speaker for Washington and Lee University's Feb. student Mock Convention presidential prediction event. I ask Noah to speak out against shirts with white supremacist cartoons if worn as planned. mockconvention.com/trevor-noah
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah BREAKING: @ewarren campaign surrogate Massachusetts Rep./senatorial candidate @joekennedy speaks in a new podcast from Washington and Lee University's student Mock Convention 2020 group. Contacted several ways for comment, Kennedy has not said whether he knew of these shirts…
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy BREAKING (concl.): …or his opinion of them. Warren has endorsed Ed Markey against Kennedy. The Mass. Mock Convention state delegation shirt contains legible numerals of an anti-Semitic code number identified by @ADL as advocating deportation of all Jewish people from the U.S.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL In all likelihood Kennedy hadn't heard of the shirts, though he hasn't said so. Now that he knows, as a congressman, and seeking higher office, he should condemn them strongly, ask W&L/Mock Con to withdraw them, and students not to buy or wear them or support white supremacism.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL Joe Biden, @PeteButtigieg, Elizabeth Warren, @AndrewYang books are on sale for W&L's Mock Convention (starting Thurs.) with official shirts with white supremacist cartoons of George Washington and Robert E. Lee with gun and rope lasso and as mobsters.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang Whether W&L's Mock Con predicts @MichaelBennet, Biden, @MikeBloomberg, Buttigieg, Gabbard, @amyklobuchar, @DevalPatrick, @BernieSanders, @TomSteyer, Warren or Yang, if the candidate calls in to the convention to acknowledge it, I ask them to speak against white supremacism.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer Don't know how it might affect W&L Mock Con prediction models, but their taking the spotlight with official shirts with white supremacist cartoons didn't help candidates whose reps participated with the group, Warren and Biden, place well in Iowa or New Hampshire. #NHPrimary2020
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer UPDATE: No comment yet from @joekennedy about his participation in a podcast for Washington and Lee University's Mock Convention (starting tomorrow). No word if he knew of their shirts w/white supremacist cartoons, if he supports them or if students should wear them. Seems weird.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer Today @ADL reported on white supremacist propaganda on U.S. college campuses. The report notes incidents peaked when these shirts were first posted at mockconvention.com/store (where they are now advertised under a banner with the name of @RepJoeKennedy).
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy In case Kennedy hadn't noticed them, I tweeted, emailed, called and described the situation and asked him to speak out as soon as possible, emailed again when they told me to do so, and I'm calling again tomorrow if there's no statement by then. Speak up, Joe! You're being used.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Why do I feel I have to use an exclamation point to "yell" at @RepJoeKennedy about this? Simply because he's a public official, the only one to participate with this group this year, and he has a duty to speak out if he disagrees with being used for white supremacist propaganda.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy I've asked speakers for Mock Convention this weekend to speak out against white supremacism and these shirts with w/supremacist cartoons. They haven't spoken yet, they still may do so. But Kennedy's not speaking there, if he wants to speak out, he should do so today, Thursday.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy I'm really not sure why Congressman Kennedy still has not spoken out about this. Maybe he will do so on Friday. State shirts with white supremacist cartoons are still being sold under his name and title at mockconvention.com/store and have been for more than a week. Seems weird.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy This Mock Convention article describes the design process of state and territorial delegation shirts. "Martinson and Newton designed the artwork for all 57 t-shirts with the help of the state chairs, who submitted ideas for their respective delegations." mockconvention.com/student-design…
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy This is the professional website of Mock Convention Memorabilia and Sales Chair Herbert Holt Coleman Martinson, W&L Class of 2021. It states Martinson has been tweeting for the State Department for a year and a half. colemanmartinson.com
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy This is a tweet from Mock Con Director of Operations Kylie Piotte, W&L Class of 2021, advertising a sticker for sale on her blog, made around the same time as the Mock Con delegation shirts. The link shows some sort of credit to the main t-shirt designers.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy This is an article from a student magazine at Washington and Lee University from December 2017 co-written by Mock Convention Memorabilia and Sales Chair Coleman Martinson. theradishwlu.com/2017/12/09/cau…
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy First photo I've seen of [presumably] a student wearing one of the 30 shirts, a Mississippi shirt, from today's Mock Convention parade in downtown Lexington, Virginia.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Still no word from Rep. Kennedy about Mock Con, his participation with the podcast, opinion of the shirts or whether students should wear them, so he missed the boat, it's underway and gavels in the first session later today. But the banner with his name is gone from the website.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Though the livestream began with a montage with a close-up of white supremacist MA and MI t-shirts, Mock Con's first session today was diverse and serious, with students of various backgrounds featured. Symone Sanders and Fmr. Sen. Joe Donnelly promoted Democratic Party values.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy No speakers directly spoke about the white supremacist t-shirts. No students I saw on camera were wearing them. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (NY) spoke briefly on video about her grandmother's activism, her presidential campaign, including women in politics and women's self-advocacy.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Faculty adviser Scott Hoover opened the event, though in a previous presentation Mock Con 2020 leaders stated they had no faculty advisers this year. Perhaps, like the removal of OK hand signals from GA and NV shirts, faculty advisers only arrived after this thread was begun.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Clearly there are some influencing the event from within to promote white supremacist imagery, and the University is allowing its resources to be used for that. Perhaps there will be more done to deal with that later. It is heartening to me to hear countervailing voices as well.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Then again, a quick trip to the University Store between sessions shows white supremacist New Jersey, Texas and Virginia shirts still on sale. (My use of the word "heartening" in the previous tweet was not a reference to the Virginia tourism "white heart" version seen here.)
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Mock Convention's second session livestream did not start with the montage featuring white supremacist shirts. It was again serious and diverse, with speeches by former ACLU president Nadine Strossen and political activist/operative Patti Solis Doyle, both quite well received.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy As in the first session, no W&L students I saw on camera in the second wore any of the state delegation shirts with white supremacist cartoons. The shirts were mentioned in a video of Mock Con organizers which played before the livestream of the session but were not displayed.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Student Mock Convention organizers Coleman Martinson and Kylie Piotte both spoke, Martinson announcing the parade float winners and Piotte connecting the 19th Amendment expanding the vote to many women with W&L's 1985 coeducation decision and women's rights and opportunities.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy In her opening, Strossen slightly mistook a current petition campaign by students to allow a diploma option without portraits of W&L's namesakes. She understood it as a petition for an option of diplomas with different names of the school (not what the current petition requests).
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy So, given her long affiliation with the American Civil Liberties Union, Strossen recommended that if the petition should be successful, students might consider requesting that their diplomas list the name of the school as Washington and Lee University's 1776 name, Liberty Hall.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Strossen's speech then combined a learned and passionate discussion of free speech with stories of her family, her immigrant grandfather's experience as a conscientious objector in the U.S. during WWI as well as her father's anti-Hitler activism which saw him sent to Buchenwald.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Strossen also spoke movingly of an appearance she made in Chicago with Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, the activist who was killed in Charlottesville, quoting Bro's thoughts on the importance of free speech even for hated or hateful ideas, and even in the face of violence.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Solis Doyle spoke personally as well, describing her family's immigrant experience, interwoven with political analysis of the impact of immigration on life in America and upcoming elections. She told Republicans why Trump rhetoric and policies hurt their party and the economy.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Both Nadine Strossen and Patti Solis Doyle, like Symone Sanders and Joe Donnelly, captured their audience with true stories, humor and smart, blunt, clear arguments and analysis. Both second session speakers got loud applause and many students stood for their concluding ovations.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Tanzanian W&L student Jamal Magoti spoke about student group SAIL, the Student Association for International Learning, and its goals of promoting dialogue, harmony and a welcoming campus environment for all, including international students, with a measured oratorical style.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy W&L's Mock Convention concludes tomorrow with two more sessions featuring four speakers, Donna Brazile, Cam Kasky, Trevor Noah and Andrew Gillum, and of course the highly anticipated announcement of their prediction of the winner of the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy The third session of #MockCon2020 had extemporaneous speeches by Donna Brazile and Cam Kasky. Brazile fired up the crowd talking about Democratic values and restoring decency after Trump. Cam Kasky talked about mental health, gun control and the cynical gridlock of our politics.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah did not give the usual Mock Con speech, instead speaking with two W&L students about growing up in South Africa, comedy, history, politics, the importance of engaging in real conversations with people on a human level and humility in leadership.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy BREAKING: Washington and Lee University's student-run Mock Convention 2020 takes two ballots to predict @BernieSanders as the Democratic presidential nominee. Will Bernie Sanders be the nominee? They are usually right. #BernieSanders #FeelTheBern #MockCon2020 #MockConvention
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy I haven't had a chance to watch the fourth and final session with Andrew Gillum's speech, and which predicted Bernie Sanders, quite yet, but will update here when I have.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Andrew Gillum gave a short speech promoting Democratic values, endorsing capitalism "with guardrails," AKA "the American Way," including access to health care and education, access to the ballot box for all qualified voters and government policies to disrupt generational poverty.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Following the announcement of the prediction of Bernie Sanders as the nominee, Mock Con General Chairman Jimmy Fleck, W&L Class of 2020, announced a video summarizing Mock Con, which sounded to me like it was just like a video they had already run earlier in the livestream.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy The clip was the same as the montage which ran at the beginning of the first session, except that the shots of the white supremacist MA and MI shirts were absent. Then the video fuzzed and began again, and again, then went to a test pattern, abruptly ending. No shirts were shown.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy None of the 30 problematic shirts I've noted were shown, that is. Spinning stationary fireworks lit the stage, balloons dropped from the ceiling and Lee Greenwood appeared and sang "God Bless the USA," descending from the stage and walking to a platform on the convention floor.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy So, with the exception of one shirt worn at Friday's parade through Lexington, the first session opening montage, and in the University Store, these white supremacist images and shirts made no appearance at Mock Convention which was visible from my faraway vantage point.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy I want to thank personally all of the students who made that possible, apparently rejecting the shirts for the most part, or at least for display at Mock Con. I'm disappointed in the Mock Con and University leadership who designed, produced, distributed and did not scrap them.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy On the other hand, I know not everyone in the Mock Con leadership or at the University helped make or sell the shirts. 27 of 57 state and territorial delegation chairs never included any white supremacist imagery on their shirts and possibly resisted pressure to do so. Good job.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy My thanks to the main speakers, Symone Sanders, Joe Donnelly, Nadine Strossen, Patti Solis Doyle, Donna Brazile, Cam Kasky and Trevor Noah, who condemned racism, bigotry, white supremacism, family separation, voter suppression, discrimination. Many students did so from the stage.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy Having documented all of this since I found the shirts on the Mock Con site around Thanksgiving, I can conclude that most students were not involved in this incident of the 30 shirts and were probably as surprised as I was when and if they learned of it. They didn't embrace it.
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy I'm proud of W&L's student body and most students who participated in and organized the 2020 iteration of Washington and Lee's Mock Convention in a spirit of goodwill, good fun and learning. It is an impressive event and was this year, outside of the 30 shirts. Congratulations!
@donnabrazile @JoeforIndiana @SymoneDSanders @PattiSolisDoyle @JoeBiden @taraemcg @AndrewGillum @TheDailyShow @Trevornoah @ewarren @joekennedy @ADL @PeteButtigieg @AndrewYang @MichaelBennet @MikeBloomberg @amyklobuchar @DevalPatrick @BernieSanders @TomSteyer @RepJoeKennedy George Washington and Robert E. Lee are very different figures. Lee should never be used as a mascot or cartoon mascot for W&L again. I have shared one idea which would have prevented the incident of the 30 shirts entirely, and would do so for the future.
