Bernie Sanders: “USA dismantle structural racism”

As leader of this country will you advance an agenda that will dismantle structural racism in this country?”

This was the question posed to former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, two democratic candidates for the 2016 US presidential election, this past weekend at Netroots Nation, the country’s largest convention for progressive activists.

After a collective shout from the crowd proclaiming “Black lives matter,” Tia Oso of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration took the stage and asked for the candidates to answer that one question.

In response to the sudden uproar from the crowd, both candidates were left speechless.

After several minutes, O’Malley uttered, “Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter” – a response that was met with boos and continued protest. Sanders, clearly frustrated, tried to talk over the shouting and began to speak about the issue of income inequality – an answer which was met with similar discontent.

Organisers criticized the event for lacking a central focus on the issue of racial injustice. One of the attendees stated, “we cannot keep disguising structural racism as income inequality.”

However, the issues of income inequality and racial injustice are more intertwined than might appear to be.

Sabrina Hersi Issa of The Guardian states:

true political inclusion of black voters in the progressive movement will reveal racial justice and economic progress as inextricably linked, and that there is no need to forsake one for the other (or to solve one first and fix the other later).”

However, as Sanders has never had to campaign to win the vote of Black communities, the rhetoric of his proposed reforms does not make clear the benefits that economic reform would bring in furthering racial equality. As explained by Issa,

Politicians and citizens end up speaking of the same issues with different languages, with a lack of empathy and connection. Though Sanders’s policy proposals likely align with number of black voters, his ability to address race is limited to the scope of wealth and the economy.”

The challenge then for Sanders, and his fellow democratic candidates, is twofold.

They must first make clear how their proposed plans for eradicating income inequality, which include raising minimum wage to $15 per hour, will undermine structural racism by making strides to level out the deep economic disparity that exists between BME communities and the predominantly white upper class in the US.

Secondly, they must explicitly bring the issue of racial equality to the centre of their campaigns, and not only in relation to the economy. Racial injustice must be addressed in every policy area, and candidates must also speak directly to issues of great importance to black communities – including voting rights protection, housing discrimination and mass incarceration.

Unless racial justice and equality is brought to the forefront of debate, the tension between BME communities and the democratic politicians whose policies might best serve their interests will only grow stronger.

The clash between what progressives declare their values to be and the issues on which they’re willing to take action will continue as the progressive movement and candidates alike seek to engage an increasingly diverse rising electorate,”

Issa states.

The only way to resolve this tension is to connect the links between structural racism and income inequality in order to provide a proper answer to the question of whether and how candidates will advance “an agenda that will dismantle structural racism in this country.”

Lastly, it is somewhat ironic that it takes a white liberal democrat to forcefully highlight these glaring inequalities. But I guess If Obama would have said them he would have been wrongly characterised as a President for only Black Americans.

Katie Bergamini