Bernie: "When You Are White"

[Haveadream]

"When you're white, you don't know what it's like to be living in a ghetto," Sanders said. "You don't know what it's like to be poor. You don't know what it's like to be hassled when you walk down the street."

Bernie got this wrong on white, black and all minority accounts. It is when he says things like this that I realize yet again that he doesn't speak for so many people. Maybe that is why he is always talking about Wall Street. Apparently his wife Jane said that they make a great team because "he handles the issues and she handles the people." Makes sense every time I hear him talk.

[shenmue]

1. Last year, I earned about $7,400

and spent half the year in and out of doctors' offices with my medical problems.

Again he doesn't know what he's talking about.

[Thinkingabout]

2. I am not being ugly but he makes in two weeks $6700, no, you know what struggle is daily.

[UtahLib]

3. Sadly, certain issues seem beyond his grasp,

as though he considers them to be bothersome nuisance issues.

[Haveadream]

4. What becomes apparent

when he is asked these questions is his lack of depth on the subject matter. He invariably speaks in generalities and in sweeping terms. At first I thought it was a matter of needing to get to know him better but I have come to realize that that is all there is. He really doesn't have a comprehensive, informed and nuanced command of topics outside his narrow range. And, if he doesn't have an understanding of the social issues people face, how can he come up with a reasoned solution? That is why the discussion always circles back to his predictable rant. Ironic that the question was framed to discuss blind spots. He has yet to discuss POC, minorities or women in a way that isn't tone deaf.

[shenmue]

5. Yes

[brer cat]

8. You have nailed it, Haveadream!

[otohara]

16. Nice

[spooky3]

19. Good points, and I didn't understand why the candidates didn't answer something like

"if I knew what my blind spots were, they wouldn't be blind spots. What I would like to tell you about is what I have learned when my blind spots were pointed out to me..."

[LoveMyCali]

22. I know that Hillary is the one who is always accused of pandering

but don't you think in some respects Bernie is just saying what he thinks the AA community wants to hear from him? He may be way off base but I think this is what he thinks POC want to hear from him.

[DemonGoddess]

6. He really has no idea

none, at all, what it means to be poor in today's economy.

[sufrommich]

7. I turned it off when he started yelling

and pointing his finger in her face so I didn't see most of the debate,but everyone knows that if you have to backtrack and explain your comments the next day,you had a bad night. I thought his anger was over the top.

[MSMITH33156]

9. I think

Bernie is a good man, whose heart is in the right place.

I think he saw the injustice of segregation, cared deeply about it, and fought hard for Civil Rights.

I also think he has no idea how to relate to minority voters. He always conflates it with class. Always. Racial discrimination crosses class boundaries.

I actually found the "can't get a cab in DC" thing to be more out of touch. While this is a problem, it's not what plagues the African-American community. Hillary spoke articulately about how she can't relate, and wouldn't pretend to, but the only thing she can do is try to understand, and then work to take out systemic racism. And he talked about not getting a taxi cab?

I don't think he meant to say white people don't know what it's like to be poor. I think he just has trouble articulating on race because it's not something he's had to deal with in Vermont, so he gets clumsy.

This would be a much bigger gaffe if the race was still competitive. But Hillary is running away with it, so no one really cares.

[DesertRat]

13. I think that your last 2 sentences say it all

[spooky3]

21. Exactly. POC who are in professional career paths still have to deal with discrimination on the job

and elsewhere. He needs to show some understanding of this serious problem, among others.

[mcar]

10. ..

[George II]

11. My jaw dropped when he said that. He always reminds us that he grew up in a three-room...

....rent controlled (say wha?) apartment in Brooklyn, and he's white.

I grew up in a 4-room apartment in Brooklyn with three brothers and a sister. My parents slept on a fold out couch in the combined living/dining room. My father supported us on about $20 a week at first. We were poor, and I'm white, and our neighborhood was a poverty ghetto.

[72DejaVu]

12. A revolution that excludes both people of color and poor whites

Doesn't sound very progressive to me.

[pandr32]

14. He apparently has no clue

As a privileged white man himself he seems to stay in his own bubble, keeping his distance. His rants about billionaires are exactly the same as they were thirty years ago, with one exception--he switched out the word "millionaires" with "billionaires" because times have changed, though now he sometimes uses both.

He also apparently has no clue about what it is like being a "white" woman. White women get hassled all the time.

He is a very narrow-minded man.

[KitSileya]

17. It shows that he hasn't understood that racism and poverty are not one issue

But rather two interconnected issues. In GD: P many BS supporters are arguing that even if white people live in poverty, there are lots of things they don't have to worry about. They claim that that means that white people don't live in ghettos even if they live in poor neighborhoods. They don't see how they undermine the very argument their candidate has made the main issue of his campaign. Racism won't be solved by getting all (Black) kids off street corners, and giving all Black adults a job, because it isn't (solely) poverty that is the reason for discrimination.

[spooky3]

18. this and other events last night convinced me that voters are absolutely correct when they do not

trust that Sanders entirely "gets it." His heart (head?) is in the right place, I think, but he hasn't experienced the kinds of sexism that women who have worked for any period of time have experienced, whereas Clinton has. When push comes to shove, the commitment of many male progressives sometimes cracks, because it just isn't fully integrated into their experiences.

Sanders is equally or more patchy about POC's concerns. While he seems to intellectually grasp the problems, the cracks became apparent again last night. Clinton also cannot have lived through what POCs experience, but she can empathize to a greater extent as a member of a group that has also experienced discrimination repeatedly. In prior primaries, many POC knew that Obama "got it" even though they respected Clinton's work; they know that Obama has lived it, so it is entirely understandable why they preferred him (aside from the other reasons they might have preferred him). And the same thing is now true for women - it's nice when progressive males do the right things, but at least in my experience, many progressive men have blind spots (or worse) when it comes to gender issues and if all else is equal, I will always prefer the woman who entirely "gets it."

[charlyvi]

20. I don't know whose minority outreach is worse....

Bernie's or the Republican's.