Sanders: voters uncomfortable with voting for AAs aren’t necessarily racist

[Xing]

I get what he was saying, but it was very poorly worded.

[Beet]

I get what he was saying, but it was very poorly worded.

[YE]

Bernie is obviously trying not to do an IceSpear and call voters racist explicitly but he’s willing to acknowledge many were uncomfortable voting for Gillum/Abrams due to their skin color is good enough for me though I would have answered in differently and said basically what Celes said. But it’s never enough for some here. Like is he going to be radically worse on the issue of race than any other liberal? It’s not like he’s bought and paid for by the private prison industry.

[Shadows]

This is really garbage & a smear campaign. Totally taken out of context & people here are dumb enough to not even read the full quote. If anything, Sanders championed Abrams, Gillum, credited them for their incredible campaign, talked about the incredible things they did, said racism had to do with their loss & said they should run again & will win next time.

Sanders, by contrast, credited Abrams with a “brilliant campaign” for her efforts to bring non-active Democratic voters into the electoral process. He marveled at O’Rourke’s fundraising prowess, which allowed the Texas Democrat to raise $38 million in the third quarter of this year—the largest of any Senate candidate in history—and earn more than 48 percent of the vote against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). And he noted that Gillum helped generate turnout that led to the successful passing of Amendment 4, which will restore voting rights to 1.5 million convicted felons in Florida.

“I think he’s a fantastic politician in the best sense of the word,” Sanders said of Gillum. “He stuck to his guns in terms of a progressive agenda. I think he ran a great campaign. And he had to take on some of the most blatant and ugly racism that we have seen in many, many years. And yet he came within a whisker of winning.”

[Shadows]

“I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American,” Sanders told The Daily Beast, referencing the close contests involving Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia and ads run against the two. “I think next time around, by the way, it will be a lot easier for them to do that.”


The whole quote was more about celebrating Abrams & Gillum, their incredible run & how they should run again. Sanders supported both Gillum & Abrams in the primaries, especially Gillum who had little to no establishment support. Really sad to take a small part of a comment out of context & to twist it to mean something else !

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I'm pretty sure that is the literal definition of racism.

Thank God, we have Bernie, the white senator from the whitest state in the US, telling us what racism is and what it is not.

[BlueSwan]

“I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American,” Sanders told The Daily Beast, referencing the close contests involving Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia and ads run against the two. “I think next time around, by the way, it will be a lot easier for them to do that.”


The whole quote was more about celebrating Abrams & Gillum, their incredible run & how they should run again. Sanders supported both Gillum & Abrams in the primaries, especially Gillum who had little to no establishment support. Really sad to take a small part of a comment out of context & to twist it to mean something else !

Are people here arguing that Bernie himself is a racist? I don't think so.

But saying that being uncomfortable with voting for a black guy is not necessarily racist is just b*llocks. That is absolutely 100% racism, no ifs or buts about it. I guess Bernie was trying to pander a bit to some of the white working class, but really he should be beneath that. Racism needs to be called out.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

“I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American,” Sanders told The Daily Beast, referencing the close contests involving Andrew Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia and ads run against the two. “I think next time around, by the way, it will be a lot easier for them to do that.”


The whole quote was more about celebrating Abrams & Gillum, their incredible run & how they should run again. Sanders supported both Gillum & Abrams in the primaries, especially Gillum who had little to no establishment support. Really sad to take a small part of a comment out of context & to twist it to mean something else !

Are people here arguing that Bernie himself is a racist? I don't think so.

But saying that being uncomfortable with voting for a black guy is not necessarily racist is just b*llocks. That is absolutely 100% racism, no ifs or buts about it. I guess Bernie was trying to pander a bit to some of the white working class, but really he should be beneath that. Racism needs to be called out.

He called out racism in a less poorly worded comment he said at the same time. But everyone just wants to be outraged about this one poorly worded comment.

[Figueira]

To be clear, I generally think Sanders is a pretty good politician, but he's prone to making tone-deaf gaffes like this.