Leader in Black Lives Matter Movement on Why Clinton Is the Best Way Forward

Packnett only recently endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. She shared with Broadly how she came to believe that a Clinton presidency is the best way forward for her community.

You recently publicly endorsed Clinton in October. A lot of black people and other people of color have been reluctant to support her. What made you want to declare this publicly?

It was only about three and a half weeks out from the election. And it genuinely did take me this amount of time to make my decision, which is surprising to some people — but other people get it. Part of it is that I had very direct access to her. The day that I endorsed her, I met her for the third time during this election cycle in person and have been able to see the way she's listening to the issues I care about. I also found myself becoming more in tune with her as a woman leader, as I shared in my piece endorsing her.

I saw her Humans of New York video and heard her identify a lot of moments earlier in her career that are very familiar to me as a woman. I think once I started to see that side of her, I saw more of myself reflected in her, and I realized I had a responsibility to understand her positions—her work on education, what she's done for children, and a broad swath of her domestic agenda in particular. I spent a lot of time looking at those things, and it's not to say an endorsement means 100 percent alignment. I've been clear that I don't think there's a perfect politician anywhere, but I am clear that—especially given these circumstances and given her record on a number of things—she's the best step forward.

You mentioned that a lot of what she said in Humans of New York resonated with you. I notice there's a lot of talk about Clinton "breaking the glass ceiling" with a lot of that coming from white women. As a black woman, does this completely resonate with you or are you more reluctant to accept this as a huge step?

It's interesting because this morning I woke up thinking about Shirley Chisholm. It is fascinating watching her get erased from this conversation. So many people forget Shirley Chisholm ran for president, not just as a woman but as a black woman. Her run was hugely symbolic and important to black women. And that's not the fault of the campaign—often the stories of women of color are relegated to the sidelines.

But that being said, cracks in glass ceilings are cracks in glass ceilings. And to have the first black president followed by the first woman president are two achievements of significance that shouldn't be ignored. There's always still work to do. Just as people thought racism was dead because Barack Obama was elected, people will walk around and say sexism doesn't exist anymore when Secretary Clinton gets elected. And so, there is so much work to do and to shine a light on just not only sexism — but the intersections of sexism and racism. My hope is more of just a "historic glass ceiling moment," which is important, but to really have a leader recognize the opportunity to put those kinds of voices and decision makers at the table.

The last time I met with [Clinton] I talked to her specifically about how it was significant to me that there have been more black women staffing her campaign than any other presidential campaigns before her. It was meaningful to me to see myself reflected in her team. I was sitting in a room with her surrounded by those women of color and so I asked her how she plans to continue that commitment and continue to keep the voice of WOC at the forefront of her decision making. She talked for a while about the search for staff she wanted to have and how she wanted to engage younger voices and diverse voices and the voices of women of color because those kind of voices really help us better our outcome.

So more than just breaking a glass ceiling, I'm looking forward to having a leader who moves us forward in placing women of color in key positions and gives us more role models, opportunities and chances to influence what happens in the world.

What else do you want to see as an individual and an activist?

Symbols do mean something, but so does action. And it's important for us to not get caught up purely on the symbolism of the moment and to use that as an open door. The point is for her to kick [the door] open so that many people can go with her—doing so by holding her accountable and pushing the administration to do things that are good for communities of color. Issues like ending childhood poverty, issues like giving every pre-schooler access to early childhood education and showing that young people have access to higher education without going into a lot of debt.

We need to see a really urgent reversal of mass incarceration that we know was ushered in with her husband's policies. She owned up to that and has started to make a plan to follow through. We need to see a great deal more transparency and accountability from law enforcement agents—from the Department of Justice all the way down. We need to see real commitment to improve infrastructure in the economy in the most distressed areas, which are primarily areas of color.

Do you see this as a very historic election in terms of people of color voting?

Black people have constantly been fighting to preserve or win our right to vote since we've been in this country. What is unique to this election is that electing Trump will affirm a very serious culture of racial and gendered violence, which has not been nearly as permissible in my lifetime as it has been in the last two years. Some of that is backlash to the movement, some of that is absolutely related to this particular presidential candidate and the way media outlets have made entirely too much room for it. And it's taken a long time for other candidates to call a spade a spade and call it racism. If we don't stamp it out in this election, God knows what could happen. Even if Trump isn't elected, I'm still afraid of violence. The voices and votes of people of color are always important but everybody's voice—and how we're willing to stand up [to a culture of racism]—is also important.