As an unabashed, diehard Bernie Sanders supporter, I'd be lying if I said last weekend's Netroots Nation fiasco didn't send a panicky chill through my body that I'll not soon forget. As soon as I watched the video, I immediately suffered a flashback to 2004 and the notorious 'Dean Scream'. And how the press crucified him for what amounted to a moment of unscheduled, unbridled campaign exuberance. And we all remember how that turned out.
Besides the highlighting of urgent BLM issues one other good thing happened as a result of the Netroots Nation. It made me curious as to Bernie's real record on racial and ethnic issues. And to be honest, upon further review, I came to only one conclusion: the evident disparity of what I knew about his record on racial issues... and what I didn't know, well, kinda, sorta surprised me. Now, I consider myself fairly well-versed in the records of the candidates I support. I've always made a point of researching them. But in this case, I admit my due diligence was lacking in both depth and detail. I knew generally about all the marches he participated in. I was well aware of the sit-ins. And the other acts of civil disobedience over the years as well. I already knew he was very active in socioeconomic politics in general for many years. But his advocacy has been even more substantive.
I suppose what surprised me was the diverse range of interests for which he's advocated since the '50s. Yes, you read that last part right. Bernie Sanders hasn't been active for just 50+ years. Bernie Sanders has magnanimously advocated for socioeconomic fairness and equality -- for a plethora of ethnic and racial cause and groups -- here and abroad, since high school... IOW, for nearly 60 years. (he graduated in 1959)
And, he's not about to stop advocating anytime soon. After all, he's a very spry septuagenarian. ;-)
Please indulge me below the weird-looking socialistic croissant.
Please allow me to briefly elucidate on some of Bernie Sander's causes over the years decades.
Bernie's first concerted cause back in high school was raising money for Korean Orphans. Which in the late '50s was not the most popular issue in the Northeast or anywhere else in America. In fact, he was pretty alone in his advocacy. He even ran for class president on a platform of raising scholarship funds for the mostly forgotten Korean war orphans. Unfortunately, he lost that campaign. But through his passionate persistence, Bernie was able to convince the young man who did win the campaign to take on his cause and became an advocate himself. Together, they created the scholarships. And there was no stopping Bernie after that.
After high school Bernie enrolled in Brooklyn College for a year before going on to the University of Chicago. Desegregation was the issue of the times in the Windy City, and Bernie inserted himself smack dab in the middle of the struggle. He was active in both the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1962, he was arrested for protesting segregation in public schools in Chicago; the cops called him an 'outside agitator', due to the fact that Bernie spent his time constantly running all over town putting up fliers detailing police brutality against minorities.
We all know this one, but in the '60s, Bernie participated on the March on Washington for Civil Rights. It was one of the most formative events of his young life.
Some 40 years ago, Bernie joined what was considered at the time to be a radical political party in Vermont called the Liberty Union Party, calling for the abolishment of all laws regarding discrimination against homosexuality.
But that was just the beginning of his fight for equality.
Standing up For victims of U.S. imperialism in Latin America, while mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders formally protested the Reagan government's policy of sending arms to Central America to repress left-wing movements. In 1985, he traveled to Nicaragua to condemn the war on people there. He writes about it in his book Outsider In The House: he wrote,
“The trip to Nicaragua was a profoundly emotional experience....I was introduced to a crowd of hundreds of thousands who gathered for the anniversary celebration. I will never forget that in the front row of the huge crowd were dozens and dozens of amputees in wheelchairs – young soldiers, many of them in their teens, who had lost their legs in a war foisted on them and financed by the U.S. government.”
In the interest of brevity, some of his other notable causes:
He endorsed Jesse Jackson (the 1st mainstream black candidate for POTUS) and defended him when he came under fire for supporting the Palestinians.
In the '90s, Bernie not only opposed Clinton's "Welfare Reform" he also spoke out adamantly against the abominable 'dog whistle' politics used to sell it to the American People.
“The crown jewel of the Republican agenda is their so-called welfare reform proposal. The bill, which combines an assault on the poor, women and children, minorities, and immigrants is the grand slam of scapegoating legislation, and appeals to the frustrations and ignorance of the American people along a wide spectrum of prejudices.”
Also in the '90s, (and throughout his life) he vocally opposed the death penalty and prisons-for-profit. He voted against cutting off prisoners from federal education funds.
He took the IMF to task for oppressing developing world workers, stubbornly butting heads with the Clinton administration's Robert Rubin on a number of occasions.
Even though Bernie is from one of the 'whitest' Northeastern states, Bernie's tireless advocacy for civil rights and socioeconomic equality got noticed by both the ACLU (in '92) and NAACP (in '97), earning ratings of 93% and 97% respectively.
In the '2000s, Bernie voted against the PATRIOT Act, (and every renewal since) opposed BOTH Iraq Wars on moral grounds, nad he traveled to Costa Rica to defend exploited workers as a result of CAFTA. This is in addition to first speaking out and then voting against the onerous legislation back here in the states because of the subsequent lost jobs.
In recent years, Bernie strongly condemned police violence multiple times, (here, here, here, here, here, here and here) embraced immigrants, meeting them in his office, while Secretary Clinton refused to see them. After the meeting, he lobbied the White House for executive action.
He's also defended voting rights against voter suppression efforts and called for expanding voting rights.
He's fought against employment discrimination; as a strong supporter of legislation to end workplace discrimination against LGBT Americans. and called for an end to the war on drugs, for-profit prisons and migrant detention quotas.
Bernie supports decriminalizing marijuana, and believes the war on drugs to be a failure.
Recently Bernie also laid out a detailed plan to end economic crisis in minority communities.
Many argue that Sanders views the issue of racial justice in too myopic a fashion by focusing on the economy. But polling of both Latinos and African Americans shows that jobs and the economy is either their top concern or tied for their top concern. Gallup polling shows that 13 percent of Hispanics say immigration is their top concern; 47 percent say the economy is. Meanwhile, among black Americans, 13 percent say “race relations” is their top concern, tied with “unemployment/jobs,” an additional 10 percentage points go to the “economy in general.” Combined, economic concerns make up 23 percentage points while race relations compose 13 percent. If you add in healthcare, at 6 percent, another major Sanders theme, it gets you up to 29 percent. Add in poverty at 7 percent and education at 5 percent and you're up to 41 percent of African Americans naming Bernie Sanders' top issues as their top issues.
The above numbers are probably behind Bernie's strategy of highlighting the economy in his campaign. And he backed up his rhetoric by introducing legislation to address Hispanic and black youth unemployment back in Aug. 2014. (long before announcing for POTUS)
Bernie Sanders still needs to prove himself to the minority community. Some of the issues he's fought for in his life are not well known. He needs to explain these things in detail. In doing so, I believe people will see his entire career in the proper perspective -- As a civil rights GIANT.
Please show a civil rights GIANT some love.