Bernie Sanders was asked by a prominent activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, what he would do about America's problem with what she called "structural racism" which I take to mean the systematic racist practices by certain key social institutions such as local police departments. Bernie was caught off guard at the crowded Phoenix convention hall that accommodated some 11,000 supporters. He received heckling from some of the activists. But I believe their mistrust is misguided. Here's why.
I believe that Bernie should be African-Americans number one choice for president in 2016 and one reason is, as one reporter points out, "In his remarks, Sanders made his case against wealth inequality, for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, for tuition-free universities and colleges and for generally getting more money to the working class." Sanders supported his economic populism by explaining it in the simplest language possible;
"My Republican friends think that the CEOs of large corporations are the job-creators," he said. "You know who the job creators are? You are the job creators. When working people have money in their pocket, they go out and they buy goods and they buy services, and when they do that, they create jobs. But when millions of people have nothing to spend, we're not creating the jobs that we need."
This was no routine display of one's Keynesian bona fides in order to impress smug intellectuals. I believe that Bernie gets it about the crisis faced by working families today and what needs to be done to address it. I believe that African-Americans would do well to support Sanders whose agenda is not only in their best interest but of the majority of those in the ninety nine percent. On the issue of civil rights and racism, I believe Bernie has earned the trust of those with abiding concerns on these matters and would actually do something to rectify the present egregious situation.
