Mr. Bernie Sanders and Ms. Hillary Clinton gave almost identical answers when asked about reparations, yet only the Vermont Senator got negative feedback.
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Mr. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Senator and Democratic Presidential candidate, has seen his number as of recent rise in the polls, and he’s also racked up a handful of impressive endorsements, most notably one from The Nation magazine, which prior to endorsing Mr. Sanders, who’s calling for a political revolution, including the breaking up of big banks, has in its entire history only endorsed two Presidential candidates, both of them black men: Mr. Jesse Jackson and Mr. Barack Obama. Mr. Sanders, a white man, is, many say, the Presidential candidate who speaks nearest to the concerns of African-Americans, and his criminal justice policy paper won praise from countless black activists, a few who are directly associated with the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
However, Mr. Sanders, who once suffered from a media blackout but is now quite ubiquitous, finds himself currently being questioned by pundits and voters as to why, despite both his stance as a political revolutionary and somewhat of an ally in the struggle against anti-black racism, would he be against reparations for African-Americans, considering the wealthy and powerful country he seeks to lead from the White House was built on the back of black slaves who never received compensation or credit for their labor. Mr. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a writer for The Atlantic who, in a lengthy read published in the summer of 2014, made the case for reparations, was a bit dismayed by Mr. Sanders’ quick dismissal of the idea based on pragmatism, given the Vermont Senator’s entire campaign is rooted in what’s “politically imaginable.”
And as expected, Ms. Clinton’s campaign pounced on the controversy in an attempt to use it to her advantage, because that’s what politics, for the most part, is about: exploiting your opponent’s perceived weakness in order to make them appear less competent, unworthy of leadership and bad for the business of government. But what I find strange, and even hypocritical, about the pundits and politicians – particularly Ms. Clinton – singling-out Mr. Sanders for not embracing reparations is that the fact that both Ms. Clinton and Mr. Sanders were both questioned on this issue, and they gave almost identical answers: no, on reparations, but yes, on targeting federal resources to make investments in communities that have long been ignored by their government.
Given the similar tone in their responses, one must question: Why is Mr. Sanders, who was once perceived as a long-shot candidate but is now gaining traction, being scrutinized for not embracing reparations but not Ms. Clinton, a candidate who many voters said comes across as entitled and out-of-touch? Could there be a massively coordinated effort to protect Ms. Clinton? Does Mr. Sanders appear as a much more vulnerable candidate who can be destroyed by getting African-Americans to disavow their support?
I have not the answer to either question. But what I do have is a truth: singling-out one Democratic candidate for giving an unpopular answer that’s identical to another Democratic candidate’s response, all the while candidates on the Republican side aren’t, for whatever reason, also confronted with the question, is, at best, disingenuous, and, at worst, a conspiracy to take down a rising star.
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