- These simply aren't issues Sanders is passionate about in the way he's passionate about economic injustice. When my colleague Andrew Prokop profiled Sanders last year, he pointed out astutely that Sanders's career has been "laser-focused on checking the power of the wealthy above all else." Sanders believes in racial equality, sure, but he believes it will only come as the result of economic equality. To him, focusing on racial issues first is merely treating the symptom, not the disease.
I'm a fan of Bernie Sanders, but as a Puerto Rican I'm not sure I agree with him.
He's playing it smart. What he's doing is carefully wording positions that will predominantly affect people of color, in words that the me-first guilt-adverse hypersensitive white fauxgressives will feel comfortable with. He needs them if he's going to win. I used to do programming before I got sick and couldn't keep up. One thing people really don't like hearing is that they did something wrong. They don't want you to come in and say "Well, see your problem is that your thing is buggy" because they decided on that thing and they are attached to it. Often they stick with the flawed system and have you build shitty bandaids that don't really work in the long run. Sometimes you can get proper fixes in by touting them as or coupling them with a new feature. In the same way, white people really hate hearing "Well, see your problem is that your white-dominated judicial system is systematically racist" because hey, they elected the people that appointed those police/judges/DAs, and that means they elected the wrong people. So what he's doing is promoting procedural changes in a way that those white folks think it will benefit them. The same way as, to use j4d3's example, police are being convinced to use cameras to protect themselves against frivolous lawsuits from criminals.
Is he playing it smart? As 538 pointed out a few weeks ago, Bernie is still struggling to appeal to non-white voters He at least some support with minority voters if he is going to get the nomination. Part of the appeal of Bernie is that he is supposed to be fairly no-nonsense and tell it like it is. But by avoiding talking about race, doesn't he drive away the minority vote because it means he either thinks that a) race isn't actually an important issue (which I think many minority voters would chalk up to out of touch white privilege) or b) he's tiptoeing around the issue for politics reasons just like any other politician, so much for no-nonsense.
One solution that seems to make sense in police brutality cases is body cameras. Sanders supports those. Are there other things you'd like to hear him saying?Sanders said he supports requiring police officers to wear body cameras and other reforms so that "suspects are treated with respect."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/30/politics/bernie-sanders-presidential-run-first-interview/
Body cameras work both ways. It's my belief that law enforcement will resist body cameras on the whole, because how many of us would enjoy total transparency in our work lives?* Maybe it would be advantageous to only require permanent storage of footage containing police interactions with people external to the department. There are a number of clauses which will work themselves out via the legal system, hopefully not at the expense of too many deaths. Yeesh, kinda morbid, sorry.*Oh shit, I'm posting on Hubski again.
From what I've heard from cops most of them seem to consider it a good way to protect yourself. Some actually buy them out of pocket in places where they're not universally used because they won't have to worry. I'd imagine that a campaign to make them universal would go over well with police in general as long as it came with funding for it.
Couldn't we allow the police to use the body cameras much like they do with their dashboard cams? To my understanding, the video on the dash can save something like the last 40 minutes of video and also start to record what will happen from that point on. Why can't we have that feature on body cams and have severe punishments for police who fail to get a video record of an incident? Could anybody point out the downfalls to that for me?
What don't you agree with him about? I completely support Bernie that social injustice is a symptom of economic injustice. I think when, for example, many white people see a poor black man, they probably don't see someone that's been screwed by the system. Those people may cut straight to judgement of that individual, and that is definitely not what we want. I also think its very hard to change views of entire groups of people (i.e. black people in Baltimore, cops in Baltimore, etc.) I think instead of merely saying, "Everyone is equal and should love each other," I think we should rather find out why people can't do that.
Do I support Bernie Sanders any less though because of his view? Nope. I think if we are going to begin tackling any issue it should be economics in the U.S. because it is a system that contributes in large to issues of race, and even gender. I'm just not convinced that social injustice will be undone when we reach that point because certain ideals held about race, and gender have been instilled for countless generations.
I can definitely see where you're coming from on that. I guess we'll just have to see where economic justice takes us. I was taking a leadership course at one point in my life and the lesson they drilled into our heads was something like, "You eat an elephant one bite at a time.*" *No elephants were harmed in the making of this post.
Actually He has been very critical of the lack of response and overall negligence of congress about this particular issue. If you take a quick look at his Facebook page you can see how vocal he is about issues as particular as Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, and Freddie gray and about issues as broad as the inequality African Americans experience compared to Whites. Bernie also called out Voter ID laws ,which make voters show IDs at polling places which have consequently put a price on ballot access and eroded turnout – especially among African Americans, young people and recently-registered voters – a non-partisan congressional watchdog concluded. Bernie Sanders has also recently called out on immigration reform (the article was posted 1 day after the vox one) saying that and
Bernie is pretty comprehensive under the veneer of a "progressive". Heres an article on his political developmentThey're concerned about the treatment of unauthorized immigrants, and about protecting voting rights (an issue like campaign finance where progressives are worried the integrity of the political system is at stake — and where the outcome doesn't look good for them).
Sanders said that as president, if Congress did not pass immigration reform, he would use executive action to give deportation relief to the parents of U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents and so-called Dreamers, the would-be beneficiaries of the Dream Act.
He spoke out against proposals for guest worker programs on Friday, too, but focused more on the exploitation of immigrants who "have been routinely cheated out of wages, held virtually captive by employers who have seized their documents, forced to live in unspeakably inhumane conditions and denied medical benefits for on-the-job injuries."
I think Bernie Sanders understands that tackling racial equality is about as effective as fighting terrorism. They're abstract concepts that can't really be approached with a policy that will be effective in their goals. The fact of the matter is, black people make up a disproportionate amount of poverty in America. The answer to helping black people is not posting #blacklivesmatter and trying to take down the Confederate flag from monuments. The answer is decriminalizing drugs, addressing income inequality which absolutely favors the rich (predominantly white men) while disadvantaging the poor (predominantly black men/women), and fixing systems that are currently broken. Talking about race is all well and good, because it sheds light on issues that many would otherwise not know exist, but that's about all the good crying over race does. You have to look at what affects and hurts racial minorities, and address those issues, not some undefined "race issue".
I think what it comes to is acknowledging the problem. I've found that a lot of times they propose these solutions (That are in fact solutions to numerous problems involving race), but when asked what problem these solutions are for the answer is vague. I think movements like #BlackLivesMatter just want politicians to acknowledge these problems as actual problems then move forth with solutions instead of tip-toeing around what the issues really are.
I think it's partly in jest, but if anything it is focused on "white progressives". When the issues of race were brought up at the Netroot's conference thing Sanders didn't really have a platform for it. I think the black community is simply upset that all the "white progressives" are saying he is the last hope, but when things like race come up he still falls short. That's my understanding on the situation at least.