While what should be done about that is the subject of debate in some circles, it's not part of any national conversation and the candidate who calls for that conversation and promised to help structure it will win the Black vote. It would signal to black people that Sanders is paying attention. Instead, Sanders has insensitively dismissed the concept out of hand saying he "opposes reparations" because it isn't fair to contemporary white people: a position that wreaks of insensitivity and betrays a profound racism.
Re-segregation -- The combination of charter schools, magnet schools and redistricting has re-introduced public school segregation into many communities of this country. Segregation means a lot of things. In general, it reflects an almost certain inequity in spending, the assignment of experienced teachers, facility quality and treatment of students. But, for black people, it also means a huge betrayal because integration of public schools was a pillar of one stage of the civil rights movement: one of the most important and largest movements to have broad social impact on everyone, a racially integrated movement that was led by black people.
Segregation is illegal in this country. Who is enforcing that law? What does Bernie intend to do as the primacy protector of rights and laws in this country? From what he's said, nothing. Just calling attention to that issue would boost his campaign enormously.
Dying cities -- The epidemic of city disappearance in this country takes many forms. There is the death by policy and neglect that places like Detroit, Michigan and Camden, New Jersey have faced. There is the death by encouraged displacement (often called "gentrification") that plagues San Franciso, New Orleans, Brooklyn and scores of areas, towns and cities all over the country. There is death by resource denial as in Flint, Michigan.
While the contours and specifics vary, the outcome is the same: black people, people of color and poor people lose their homes, must move from their neighborhoods, lose jobs, must pull their kids from schools, lose their friendships, and find their daily routines (the glue that holds their lives together and very often celebrates their cultures) spectacularly disrupted. People are begin discarded in an epidemic of displacement.
Nobody can argue that this isn't an abominsation. But who will come forward with a simple, gutsy statement: as an American citizen, you have the right to a stable home and neighborhood? Which candidate will make the statement that needs making: gentrification is a public threat that, perhaps can't be eliminated in this system and period, but must be controlled and that people who are displaced must be compensated and sensitively re-established. Not Bernie and if he would make that statement, he would win people of color over.
There are other issues that need addressing. While Sanders has spoken about "immigration" in a semi-progressive way, the position to take on immigration is amnesty for all migrating peoples and then allow the resulting conversation about who was here first, who took whose lands and why, and what is happening in places people migrate from. That conversation would be a huge contribution to this country's self-awareness and would distinguish Sanders' campaign.
He doesn't have to take sides on it. All he would have to do is call for national consideration of it: a kind of program of human valuation -- something that says "you are important between elections". In fact, doing that would do more than attract support from votes of the global majority. These political positions tend to spread their impact: when you are recognizing the concerns of certain groups, others will be more confident in asking you to pay attention to them.
This isn't a change of politics affecting certain groups; it is a change of concept for a political campaign. If you're flying the flag of "different and progressive politics", you have to organize a campaign that emanates, not from a candidate winning people over, but from people, communites and movements educating the candidate.
That he has done none of this is a reflection, not of Bernie's character or intelligence, but of the fact that he is imprisoned in the traditional approach to politics. For him it's all about faces, like Reverend Al Sharpton, and vague statements like "of course black lives matter". But these are mere gestures, expedient responses to what appears to the Sanders campaign to be people seeking to be bought off. He appears to not understand this movement and, as a result, he will not be President of the United States.
It's curious because Hilary Clinton, who enjoys widespread support in communities of color, hasn't done much in her campaign to court those communities. But she did one thing that will never be forgotten by people of color: she joined and was central to the administration of Barack Obama. That act makes her part of a historic moment that black people in this country thought would never happen and it gives them a sense of confidence in her.
Bernie deserves that kind of confidence much more than she does but he doesn't have it. He should be President not because he deserves it, although he does, but because we deserve a President like him. That this apparently isn't going to happen makes our work as a movement that much more difficult.
Re-segregation -- The combination of charter schools, magnet schools and redistricting has re-introduced public school segregation into many communities of this country. Segregation means a lot of things. In general, it reflects an almost certain inequity in spending, the assignment of experienced teachers, facility quality and treatment of students. But, for black people, it also means a huge betrayal because integration of public schools was a pillar of one stage of the civil rights movement: one of the most important and largest movements to have broad social impact on everyone, a racially integrated movement that was led by black people.
Segregation is illegal in this country. Who is enforcing that law? What does Bernie intend to do as the primacy protector of rights and laws in this country? From what he's said, nothing. Just calling attention to that issue would boost his campaign enormously.
Dying cities -- The epidemic of city disappearance in this country takes many forms. There is the death by policy and neglect that places like Detroit, Michigan and Camden, New Jersey have faced. There is the death by encouraged displacement (often called "gentrification") that plagues San Franciso, New Orleans, Brooklyn and scores of areas, towns and cities all over the country. There is death by resource denial as in Flint, Michigan.
Nobody can argue that this isn't an abominsation. But who will come forward with a simple, gutsy statement: as an American citizen, you have the right to a stable home and neighborhood? Which candidate will make the statement that needs making: gentrification is a public threat that, perhaps can't be eliminated in this system and period, but must be controlled and that people who are displaced must be compensated and sensitively re-established. Not Bernie and if he would make that statement, he would win people of color over.
There are other issues that need addressing. While Sanders has spoken about "immigration" in a semi-progressive way, the position to take on immigration is amnesty for all migrating peoples and then allow the resulting conversation about who was here first, who took whose lands and why, and what is happening in places people migrate from. That conversation would be a huge contribution to this country's self-awareness and would distinguish Sanders' campaign.
He doesn't have to take sides on it. All he would have to do is call for national consideration of it: a kind of program of human valuation -- something that says "you are important between elections". In fact, doing that would do more than attract support from votes of the global majority. These political positions tend to spread their impact: when you are recognizing the concerns of certain groups, others will be more confident in asking you to pay attention to them.
This isn't a change of politics affecting certain groups; it is a change of concept for a political campaign. If you're flying the flag of "different and progressive politics", you have to organize a campaign that emanates, not from a candidate winning people over, but from people, communites and movements educating the candidate.
That he has done none of this is a reflection, not of Bernie's character or intelligence, but of the fact that he is imprisoned in the traditional approach to politics. For him it's all about faces, like Reverend Al Sharpton, and vague statements like "of course black lives matter". But these are mere gestures, expedient responses to what appears to the Sanders campaign to be people seeking to be bought off. He appears to not understand this movement and, as a result, he will not be President of the United States.
It's curious because Hilary Clinton, who enjoys widespread support in communities of color, hasn't done much in her campaign to court those communities. But she did one thing that will never be forgotten by people of color: she joined and was central to the administration of Barack Obama. That act makes her part of a historic moment that black people in this country thought would never happen and it gives them a sense of confidence in her.
Bernie deserves that kind of confidence much more than she does but he doesn't have it. He should be President not because he deserves it, although he does, but because we deserve a President like him. That this apparently isn't going to happen makes our work as a movement that much more difficult.
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