Do I think Bernie Sanders is a racist? Nope. Do I think Hillary Clinton is a racist? Nope. Do I think both their campaigns contain staffers and supporters who are well meaning but often out of touch with the needs and voices of America’s minority communities? You betcha. Because that’s true of pretty much every member, to a lesser or greater extent, of America’s white hegemon. Privilege is damn hard to overcome and even the best of us stumble and fall.
What we’ve seen in this campaign is both Sanders and Clinton stumble and fall. But both of them have clear histories that indicate that while their birth privilege might make them at times insensitive, it is clear that neither of them have a white sheet hanging in their closet. The hyperbole that has become manifest around this place over these kinds of gaffes — the pop psychology in search of some hidden racialist agenda is a disservice to both campaigns. We’re not honoring our pledges to make this about issues — indeed right now we’re wallowing in some very ugly mud. And we’re doing it at a time when the Democratic party — once the bastion of whiteness and racism — is literally now the last best hope for equity in America. This is why both these candidates want to lead it.
So while we are tearing each other down — and trying to score political points against each other’s opponent, the actual racists: the real sheet wearing troglodytes who’d like nothing better than to see the leader of our party and our President — Barack Obama — in chains. What we as a party stand for is literally offensive to their eyes. When they say they want their country back they mean it. I, personally, don’t plan to let them have it.
There IS a sheet hanging in the GOP’s closet.
On Wednesday David Duke, the former KKK Grand Wizard and white nationalist, endorsed Donald Trump and told his radio show listeners to support him. Duke said:
"Call Donald Trump’s headquarters [and] volunteer," he said on the "David Duke Radio Program." At Trump campaign offices, he said, "you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mindset that you have.”
Let’s look at this line again: YOU’RE GONNA MEET PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO HAVE THE SAME KIND OF MINDSET THAT YOU HAVE.
The story.
Now if you really think there are vast swaths of people in the Sanders or Clinton campaigns about whom a member of the KKK could say that I have to say I think your partisanship has gotten the best of you and you need to step back and collect your thoughts.
Is the Democratic party a systemically racist organization? No. Are BOTH our candidates fighting against institutional racism? You’re damn right they are — and their records show it. Are they — and we — sometimes inartful, especially when faced with a GOTCHA political moment? Yes. But we should take a minute and give each of them the benefit of the doubt. They have good records.
Donald Trump and the GOP simply do not. And the KKK knows better than anyone who the ACTUAL racists are. Let’s try for a little perspective. Solidarity, people, no matter who wins this primary, will keep the KKK’s best man out of the White House.