Why progressives are fighting about Bernie Sanders and race...It's about the progressive movement

[Dems2002]

I've been a member of The Underground since the 2000 election. My username reflects my desire to fight immediately to win back the House in 2002. As we all know, it didn't quite work out that way. I did do my part, taking a job running local political campaigns in 2002, and I did that work for ten years throughout California.

I called myself a populist when the people at my consulting firm were all calling themselves progressives and hadn't a clue as to the distinction. Maybe it is my working class roots coupled with being a first gen college grad, but living in the Bay Area, I've been as frustrated by my rich, liberal friends as much as my crazy racist tea party relatives.

A key reason our country has the worst social safety net in the world is due in large part to racism. People are willing to have less for themselves and their families in order for "those people" to not have anything free. And a lot of White Progressives want gold stars for being "less racist" than members of the tea party and being horrifed at the thought of using the "n word" all the while sending their kids to all white private schools and obliviously gentrifying neighborhood after neighborhood.

The language I am seeing tossed around this forum around the #BlackLivesMatter protesters is infuriating to me. They were rude, they didn't do it right, blah blah blah. That is how protest works. It is not polite. It is in our face and uncomfortable.

If we are going to have any chance at all of truly taking our country back from the elites, white progressives are going to have to put on our big boy and girl pants and shut the fuck up. Racism has absolutely been used by the elites to divide us economically. Not just the racism of the tea party, but the racism that has been fostered in all of us through living in an inherent, racist society. And until we are willing to let our black brothers and sisters have the floor and power and follow them rather than telling them, we know better and that they should sit down or go to the back, we will never succeed against the elites. They live for this divide.

I am a huge Bernie Sanders fan. He is absolutely the guy I am supporting for President. But while I know it takes a massive ego to run for President, I sure as hell hope he believes his own message that this isn't about him, it is about us. And the Protesters are US. And maybe it is time they teach Bernie that the time is now. I hope we can all learn together. Because I fully believe that if we do, we will all win.


There is a legitimate disconnect between the way Sanders (and many of the economic progressives who support him) see the world, and the way many racial justice progressives see the world. To Bernie Sanders, as I've written, racial inequality is a symptom — but economic inequality is the disease. That's why his responses to unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore have included specific calls for police accountability, but have focused on improving economic opportunity for young African Americans. Sanders presents fixing unemployment as the systemic solution to the problem.

Many racial justice advocates don't see it that way. They see racism as its own systemic problem that has to be addressed on its own terms. They feel that it's important to acknowledge the effects of economic inequality on people of color, but that racial inequality isn't merely a symptom of economic inequality. And, most importantly, they feel that "pivoting" to economic issues can be a way for white progressives to present their agenda as the progressive agenda and shove black progressives, and the issues that matter most to them, to the sidelines. So Sanders's performance at Netroots confirmed the frustrations that his critics felt. And Sanders's supporters' reaction to the criticism was just as predictable.

To Sanders's critics, the "but the civil rights movement!" response isn't just irrelevant, it's insulting. "It's like they're almost trying to outblack us," says Morrow. "'Oh, you're a black person, what could you possibly understand about our candidate? He was marching before you were even born!' That's cool, but you gotta stay on top of it."


This isn't about the presidential campaign, it's about the progressive movement

http://www.vox.com/2015/7/20/9001639/bernie-sanders-black-lives-matter