NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Beto O’Rourke said black Americans need to be shielded from their own country.

Appearing before a gathering of 10 black community leaders and activists at Park Circle Creamery, the 2020 presidential candidate addressed the lack of trust in the law enforcement community that has arisen from incidents of police brutality.

“I don’t know the right word to describe what we need to do as a country, but it’s not just leveling the playing field. It is protecting people from their country and those who hold positions of trust, including in law enforcement right now,” the former Texas congressman told the group. “And it’s protecting from a criminal justice system, it’s protecting from a kindergarten classroom, it’s also protecting from who’s polluting the air that we breathe and the water we drink,” he said, making an apparent reference to the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

O’Rourke is participating in a 10-stop, three-day swing of South Carolina, an early-voting state where candidates are investing time and resources courting the black vote. His remarks were made in response to a question probing the contender for his “opinion on what black people can do as individuals or as a collective in order to catch up.”

“We have these very specific proposals about ensuring there’s more capital in the community, capital in society, making sure everyone has access to it,” O’Rourke said. “I understand that it’s much larger than any given policy proposal or any part of the system because it is systemic. And I will in all humility admit I don’t have the answer.”

Earlier Charleston’s Jerez Mitchell, 32, and Columbia’s Warrenetta Mann, 52, told the ex-congressman about their nonprofit organization, Cuts and Conversations, founded to boost black male college and university retention rates, including by creating open, nonjudgmental spaces for them to talk about their different experiences.

O’Rourke is one of a few White House hopefuls visiting the greater Charleston area this weekend to address Saturday’s Black Economic Alliance Presidential Forum. Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts are also in town to attend the business leaders coalition’s inaugural presidential event, where they were asked to speak to how they would provide more black economic opportunities.

O’Rourke ranks sixth, with 3.5% support, in the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

If you lived in Sudan, you wouldn’t be able to read this.

The country is under a “near total” internet blackout now as its military government attempts to quell protests that have been rumbling since December. The country’s longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir was forced out in April, but Sudan has struggled to gain stability in the time since. Recently, things got violent.

Celebrities and citizens have been turning their social media profiles #BlueForSudan, as the military crackdown that reportedly left 100 people dead has received little media coverage.

Protesters in Sudan may not be able to check social media, but people in the U.S. are trying to make sure their voices get heard. Musicians such as Demi Lovato, Cardi B, and J. Cole all added blue to their social media profiles, and Brooklyn-based beauty blogger Shahd Khidir explained why.

“There’s a massacre happening in my country Sudan’s and a media blackout and internet censorship for four consecutive days,” she wrote. “My friend @mattar77 was MURDERED by the Rapid Support Forces. My best friend was in hiding on June 2 and that’s the last time I spoke to him.”

Fast Company reports that the color blue “was chosen by friends of 26-year-old Mohamed Mattar, who was killed during an attack by security forces in Sudan at the beginning of June. Blue was his favorite color.”

The massacre in Sudan has received little media coverage, especially, some noted, compared to the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral, an iconic landmark in Paris to which many people felt connected.

Yet the toll on Sudan is heavy — at least 60 dead by the mlitary government’s reckoning, and at 118 according to groups linked to the protesters, according to the Washington Post.

Changing social media profiles may not do much, but when the news is filled with political drama and events that we, as Americans, readily understand, it’s worth doing something to make more people aware.

This isn’t the first time a moment from Sudan has run through social media. A powerful photo of a woman standing up among protesters went viral in April, and photos like this, as well as viral social media campaigns, can help people have a little more empathy for something they’d otherwise have known nothing about.

“She was trying to give everyone hope and positive energy and she did it,” Lana Haroun, who took the photo, told CNN. “She was representing all Sudanese women and girls and she inspired every woman and girl at the sit-in. She was telling the story of Sudanese women. … She was perfect.”

Democrats should bring back the “kiddie table” debates.

On Friday, Democrats announced that after a random drawing, the 20 Democratic candidates participating in the first set of primary debates next week will be split into the following two groups:

What this means in practice is that the surging Massachussetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has been threatening Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ grip on second place, will be stuck on stage with candidates in the low-single digits, while self-help author Marianne Williamson, who has barely registered in polls, gets to debate Sanders, Joe Biden, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., — in other words, the other candidates with relatively decent polling. This is totally ridiculous.

During the 2016 nominating process, in response to a historically crowded field, Republicans decided to split their candidates up by their polling averages, creating a main event with the higher polling candidates, and an “undercard” debate with the ones with lower polling. The undercard debate was mocked mercilessly, and the DNC was determined to avoid the appearance of a “kiddie table” debacle lest they be accused of tipping the scales toward one candidate or against another, and so they decided to go with a random lottery system.

The DNC may want to avoid charges of rigging the system that plagued them in 2016, but at the end of the day, managing a field of over 20 candidates is going to always create problems and require certain arbitrary decisions. The criteria for qualifying for the debate, for instance, is already coming under criticism for denying a spot to Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

For all its flaws, the “kiddie table” provided all candidates with the ability to be on a debate stage, but ensured that the leading candidates would be able to debate with each other.

Sure, one could argue that Warren could shine by essentially being the leader on her debate stage. But this isn’t about her campaign as much as it is to voters. And voters trying to decide between Warren and other candidates should get to see her on the same stage as those she’s realistically competing with.