Vermont’s Black Leaders: "We Were Invisible to Sanders"

[Landslide Lyndon]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/17/vermont-s-black-leaders-we-were-invisible-to-bernie-sanders.html?via=desktop&source=twitter

Back in 2006, the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity, a Brattleboro-area civil rights organization, hosted a Candidate Night. The race for the open U.S. Senate seat between Bernie Sanders and Richard Tarrant, a Republican and one of the wealthiest people in the state, had grown increasingly acrimonious.

The audience of African-American activists and other Vermonters of color should have been a friendly one for the socialist congressman.

Instead, remembers Curtiss Reed Jr., the executive director of the group, it became something of a showdown. Sanders “was just really dismissive of anything that had to do with race and racism, saying that they didn’t have anything to do with the issues of income inequality,” Reed told The Daily Beast.

“He just always kept coming back to income inequality as a response, as if talking about income inequality would somehow make issues of racism go away.”

And since winning that race, Sanders’s approach toward Reed and his organization has been one of “benign neglect,” the activist added. “We are a major statewide organization. It would stand to reason that you would check in with your major constituents, but voters of color are simply not on his radar.”


Also, LOL:

(A spokesperson for the Sanders campaign did not respond to an emailed question about what Sanders specifically had done for the African-American community of Vermont.)

[The Free North]

While upsetting, the significance of this is diminished somewhat given Vermont's tiny minority population whose members would feel 'ignored' almost by definition of their geography.

[Mike Thick]

Wait, there are black people in Vermont?

[Asian Nazi]

Wait, there are black people in Vermont?

Probably Sanders' reaction too lol

[ProgressiveCanadian]

You know the Hillbots are getting desperate when...

[Landslide Lyndon]

You know the Hillbots are getting desperate when...

When what kid? Posting articles that are unflattering to your man-crush?

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

I want to meet these supposed black people in Vermont, they're the things of legends I heard.

[Maxwell]

It's a common criticism that comes with Sanders that I agree with and kind of bugs me about him in general - he's been on the right side of all these issues, but where was he? He hasn't bothered to build the kind of alliances with his fellow lawmakers and constituencies to move the ball forward because he thinks all of his colleagues are special interest hacks.

[MM876]

I am disappointed by this, but it makes sense given Vermont's black population. He paid less attention to minorities when they were an incredibly small amount of his constituency and could afford to focus on one issue as a senator.

I think Bernie's gotten better and this and frankly I think his current position is equal to or better than that of Hillary. He's made tremendous strides to reach out, and while he got it wrong a lot at first with BLM in particular, he's made a serious effort to reach out and I'm impressed by it.

[Mike Thick]

I want to meet these supposed black people in Vermont, they're the things of legends I heard.

There's actually at least one black guy there. And -- get this -- he's a Republican!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Brock

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

It's a common criticism that comes with Sanders that I agree with and kind of bugs me about him in general - he's been on the right side of all these issues, but where was he? He hasn't bothered to build the kind of alliances with his fellow lawmakers and constituencies to move the ball forward because he thinks all of his colleagues are special interest hacks.

Maybe he doesn't have the experience dealing with the AA community...After all he represents the whitest state in the Union.

[Famous Mortimer]

Economic inequality IS the root of racism though. The alternative is that people hate other people based on the amount of melanin in their skin, which is stupid. Why don't people hate other people based on their hair or eye color then? The answer is obvious. Because there are no uniform socio-economic trends among people with the same eye color or hair color. Additionally, even if racism was based solely on skin color, there's not much the government can do about it. The government can certainly have some impact on economics but it can't go inside stupid people's brains and make them not hate dark people, so there's no point in talking about that.

[ProgressiveCanadian]

You know the Hillbots are getting desperate when...

When what kid? Posting articles that are unflattering to your man-crush?

No, posting articles from the Daily Beast that has proven to be biased against Sanders is a bit of hackery on your part. Vermont is strongly supportive of Sanders and his favorable's aren't dropping because of an establishment story like this.

[Oakvale]

Economic inequality IS the root of racism though. The alternative is that people hate other people based on the amount of melanin in their skin, which is stupid. Why don't people hate other people based on their hair or eye color then? The answer is obvious. Because there are no uniform socio-economic trends among people with the same eye color or hair color. Additionally, even if racism was based solely on skin color, there's not much the government can do about it. The government can certainly have some impact on economics but it can't go inside stupid people's brains and make them not hate dark people, so there's no point in talking about that.

You... you don't seem to understand what racism is.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I knew there was some suspicious about him praising Scandinavia all the time

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

I truly believe Sanders doesn't actually care about the problems in the AA community...

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

sanders pls pander

[ProgressiveCanadian]

I truly believe Sanders doesn't actually care about the problems in the AA community...

and Clinton does?

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

I truly believe Sanders doesn't actually care about the problems in the AA community...

and Clinton does?

No I do not, but let's agree on something, the AA community has been marginalized for way too long, it allowed groups like BLM and others to sprout from all this.

[DrScholl]

If it's difficult for him to connect with a relatively small community in his own state, how can he be expected to connect with larger communities in other states?

[Eraserhead]

The African-American community of Vermont.

[ProgressiveCanadian]

I truly believe Sanders doesn't actually care about the problems in the AA community...

and Clinton does?

No I do not, but let's agree on something, the AA community has been marginalized for way too long, it allowed groups like BLM and others to sprout from all this.

The BLM movement was created because of all the recent police brutality against blacks. It just pointed out that hey black lives matter too. They are tired of there sons going out to the street and getting shot by the police disproportionately compared to whites. 

[Ebsy]

I truly believe Sanders doesn't actually care about the problems in the AA community...

and Clinton does?

I actually do believe that Clinton cares deeply about the racial inequalities that persist in our society, and that her record of helping the disadvantaged, especially children living in poverty, shows her dedication to helping people of color. Let's not pretend that her education reforms in Arkansas or the Children's Health Insurance Program didn't disproportionately help black children. Honestly, I don't know how you could look at Clinton and say that she simply doesn't care; her entire career screams otherwise.

[sportydude]

What's next? The white community of Jefferson County complaining that they're invisible to Hillary?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Yea, here's a montage of Bernie paying no mind to issues facing the black community.



(and yes this one has been proven to be him at a civil rights protest in Chicago)





And according to the U.S. Census, there are roughly 3,500 black people in Vermont as of 2010, living in possibly the most progressive state in the country.  What exactly did you want him to do to "reach out" beyond being on the right side of just about every issue?  

This is getting a little ugly, but you knew it was coming.  I'm just glad the wink-wink-Jew card isn't being thrown around and rather it just some strawman argument that making income inequality a theme means you are inherently ignorant of other issues.