Can we give decent burial to the meme that Bernie Sanders didn't appeal to black voters.

[GaryCnf]

121. I was not going to add my comment to this thread

because I think the discussion that has developed in it is poisonous and I was hoping the comments would die out and it would eventually just drop from the screen. It has not.

I am black. I am a Marxist. I proudly supported Senator Sanders in the primary just as I proudly supported Secretary Clinton in the general election. I have in my short time here already supported and will continue to support the 2016 platform of the Democratic Party from all attacks whether they come from leftists or from centrists. I resent white people lecturing me about where black people stand when it comes to politics, but maybe not as much as I resent other black people and even more so people of color who are not black doing the same thing because the second group's lectures suggest that I have betrayed my brothers and sisters. When I speak now I speak for myself. You are free to decide whether anyone shares my opinions.

I believe that social justice is impossible without economic justice. Yes, capitalism oppresses black people above all others and not just incrementally but geometrically. It does not follow though that social justice must precede economic justice. Capitalism requires oppression. Replacing a white capitalist with a black capitalist may be of great benefit to that particular black person and other who have advanced but so long as capitalism exists I will be oppressed and I will be oppressed multiple times more than someone who is not black. That is why I supported Senator Sanders and why I do not support the notion that seeking economic justice first is somehow intrinsically racist. If Senator Sanders were to defend the racist trappings of capitalism, it is one thing. For just a small example, if he were to defend redlining, or the use of criminal justice system as a tool of oppression, or discrimination in lending practices, I would gladly join the none too subtle suggestions by some in this string that Sanders is oblivious to racial injustice. But simply because he believes like I do that social justice flows from economic justice? I will not.

Does it then follow that my profession of support for Secretary Clinton in the general election and support for our Party's platform are insincere or even dishonest? No. As a black person I am oppressed in ways unknown to any other identifiable group and I am not equally oppressed by both political parties. A more moderate than I Democrat might call for calm and support the use of the National Guard and defend the non-prosecution of Wilson after the shooting of Michael Brown BUT Jeff Sessions will send cops out with instructions to shoot people like me. This idea that there is even a mildly rational choice about which party to support in the general election is one of the privileges of not being black. I don't get a protest vote. As a matter of fact, If I believed that both Sanders never had a chance in the primary and that his presence would not push the Party platform to the left, I would have not even supported him in the primaries. I believed he could win and history shows that he did push the platform to the left. I have no apologies, just as I have no apologies for fighting for Secretary Clinton in the general election. I have no apologies for fighting for a platform that reflects the Party's growing concern for black people and for other marginalized groups.

I will leave you all free to debate what this group or that group thinks and to post articles about what someone else thinks this group or that group thinks. I have told you why one black person is a far leftist, a Bernie supporter and an unapologetic and unwavering Democrat. If you insist on trying to try to divide this party by insisting that it is impossible, that is up, to you.