PrintSanders: Whites don't know what it's like to be poor
Bernie Sanders, the senator representing the socialist paradise of Vermont, has apparently never seen a poor white person. This is understandable, since about 1% of the state's population is black.
But Sanders considers himself an expert on the racial divide in poverty. And at last night's debate with Hillary Clinton, the senator expounded on his theories of race and poverty.
During the CNN Democratic debate Thursday night Sen. Bernie Sanders claimed that if someone was white they don’t know what it’s like to be poor or live in a ghetto.
“When you’re white you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto, you don’t know what it’s like to be poor,” said Sanders. “You don’t know what it’s like to be hassled when you walk down the street, or dragged out of a car.”
The remarks came in response from a question by CNN’s Don Lemon that asked candidates what “racial blind spots” they had.
Clinton responded by saying, “being a white person in the United States of America I know that I’ve never had the experience that so many people in this audience have had.” Hillary went on to say, “I have spent a lot of time with the mother’s of African-American children who have lost them — Trayvon Martin’s mother.”
Sanders hasn't traveled much in the U.S. He certainly hasn't been to Appalachia, where many whites live in severe poverty not seen in the inner city. Nor has he been to many places in the Mountain West, where the killing of coal has made paupers out of thousands of white people.
In short, Sanders doesn't know what he's talking about. In his effort to fully pander to black voters, he has made an ignorant statement based not on facts, but rather on urban myths. No doubt there are some blacks who are rousted, but is it racism or sensible policing?
And for Hillary to bring up Trayvon Martin's mother only feeds the false narrative that continues, despite the fact that the man who shot Martin was judged innocent and that the police had nothing to do with the shooting. Even Eric Holder's Justice Department couldn't find grounds to charge Mr. Zimmerman with violating the civil rights of Martin.
But why let the facts stand in the way of a good white-bashing narrative?
Neither Clinton nor Sanders has any shame.
