And rather amazingly he actually generated loud and boistrous cheers when he argued the case that America need to address it's issues on Racial Justice. Here's something you won't see on CNN which has now turned into Trump TV.
"I cannot understand for the life of me how there can be hundreds of groups in this country whose sole reason for existence is to promote hatred, hate groups, and they join us so we can hate African-Americans or gays or Jews or immigrants or anybody that is different from us,” Sanders said. “I can’t understand that, but let us be clear, that when you have unarmed African-Americans shot by police officers, something which has been going on for years, that is also institutional racism and something that cries out for reform.
It is true that the crowd roared even louder when moderator David Nassar said ther following:
“We couldn’t agree with you more on (criminal justice reform), though,” said Nasser, the university’s senior vice president for spiritual development.
“We would say, and I think I speak for many of our students, that it’s not so much a skin issue as much as it is a sin issue,” Nasser said to thunderous and sustained applause. “That we can change the behavior of police, we could put cameras on them all day long, but behavior modification can only stop so short as identity change. I think we want what you want.”
I'm going to say that I agree here with Nassar's framing. I always find it troubling when people argue that racism in America is about "Skin Color".
It's not about that, it's not even slightly about that.
We can see by what happened to our own Shawn King, and to a even greater extent Rachel Dolezal that you can look white as the driven snow and people will still come after you if you exhibit a point of view they disagree with, if they don't think you're American Enough, if you they think you're genetically deficient, if they think you're infected with racial grievance, laziness, excuse making, inherent violence and criminality and terminal complaining.
It's not just about skin-tone, that's why they can turn around in a blink and embrace Herman Cain or Ben Carson because they can say to themselves, these guys aren't like the rest of them. They aren't making excuses, they succeeded anyway therefore that means there's nothing for me to do.
LOOK, look, a few black people survived and thrived against all reasonable odds, so it's not my problem, it's their problem to solve - stop. asking. me. to. lift. a. finger.
But I didn't see the fact that James Blake was Number #4 Tennis Player in the nation help him a bit when Office Frascatore decided to slam him to the ground for no good reason.
I don't see the fact that Kamilah Brock had risen high enough to buy her own BMW, and get a job as a banker, stop the NYPD from detaining her and committing her to a psych ward for the crime of claiming she actually owned her own car and had her job and Barack Obama follows her on twitter. She did, and she did, and he does. But instead of checking, instead of listening to her, the cops and the Hospital kept her under anti-psychotic medication for 8 Days Straight.
I don't think it's just skin color that made this happen according to a recent study of of medication given to children suffering from appendicitis.
Of an estimated almost 1 million children evaluated in Emergency Departments (EDs) who were diagnosed with appendicitis, 56.8 percent of patients received some for of analgesia and 41.3 percent received opioid analgesia. Among the patients with moderate pain, Black children were less likely to receive any analgesia than white children. Among the patients with severe pain, Black children were less likely to receive opioids(12.2 percent) than white children (33.9 percent.)
Doctors and nurses who we expect to simply respond to the needs of patient, aren't able to recognize, acknowledge and respond to the
pain of black children to the same level as whites.
When rookie cops still in the Academy recognized their being indoctrinated into a Racist "Us vs Them" view of reality.
“I understand as a law enforcement professional—and as someone capable of fairly reading mountains of data—that the Drug War has been unfairly used as a tool of oppression against the black community. It is why the American public overall has shown they have less confidence in police in recent times.”
He concluded, “But there is no War on Police. This Us vs. Them mentality still prevails even in fresh academy cadets. Perhaps some of these people will become future jackbooted, truncheon wielding oppressors. Or perhaps they will encounter the reality that betrays the fear they are taught.”
You don't have to be a big 300lb man-child like Michael Brown, you don't have to have on a
scary hoodie like Trayvon Martin, you don't have to be playing with a toy gun in a playground like Tamir Rice, or in the middle of a store in an
open carry state like Jonathan Crawford, or
don't have to have your pants hanging down - you can be a Tennis Star, or a Banker with a BMW, or a woman starting a new job at her alma mater when didn't break the law to
change lanes to avoid an emergency vehicle.
It's not just skin tone. You can't overcome or escape this by being "respectable enough". Those are delusions.
But it is, in the end, a Sin, that is being perpetrated on our fellow Americans. Racism is a Sin. It is against the teachings of Jesus as he said "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone".
We may have our differences with Jerry Falwell, and with Liberty University, but we should not differ on this issue.