Bernie Sanders: White People Don't Know What It's Like To Live 'In The Ghetto' [View all]

[big_dog]

Source: The Huffington Post 03/06/2016 10:10 pm ET

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said white people don't understand what it's like to be poor and live in the ghetto, in response to a question about the candidates' racial blind spots.

Sanders told a moving story about how, as a newly elected congressman in Washington, D.C., about 20 years ago, he was shocked to learn that a fellow congressman, who was black, avoided taking cabs because it was humiliating when drivers would go past him because of his race.

He also said he was humbled when a young woman active in the Black Lives Matter movement came up and told him that he simply doesn't understand what police do in many black communities on a regular basis, beyond the shootings that tend to get more attention.
"You don't understand the degree to which we are terrorized. ... I'm just talking about everyday activities where police officers are bullying people," Sanders recounted the woman telling him.

"When you're white, you don't know what it's like to be living in a ghetto," Sanders concluded. "You don't know what it's like to be poor. You don't know what it's like to be hassled when you walk down the street or you get dragged out of a car. And I believe that as a nation in the year 2016, we must be firm in making it clear, we will end institutional racism and reform a broken criminal justice system."


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-ghetto_us_56dce712e4b03a405679062b