The Neverending Tone Deafness of Bernie Sanders

[DemonGoddess]

11. K&R!

Wonderful diary by Bravenak!

Now, as to systemic racism, it certainly exists. Let me just say that the behavior is a LEARNED behavior. My dad, while quite liberal on many things, was a bigot (this was in the 60's primarily). He did eventually evolve from that, but it took him a long time. On the other hand, my mother has always believed that it is the inner qualities of a PERSON that matters, not the color of his or her skin.

As a youngster, because I idolized my dad, I would parrot the racist bs. When I started to grow up, I evolved from that. It made no sense to me to be 1/4 Filipino, and make statements about PoC. After thinking about that quite a bit, I asked my dad (by this time I was in my 30's) if he, perhaps, reacted the way he did for so many years because he was trying to deflect the racist bs away from himself, being half Filipino, and never ever passing for white. In the end, he did agree there was that element. As I said, he evolved in his thinking on racism, race baiting, all of it. I do believe my mother was a huge influence on him with this. I can remember hearing some very heated arguments when I was young, about it. Up to and including my mother pointing out that he wasn't exactly white himself.

The upshot of all this is, is that people can, will, and DO evolve from what I see as exclusive type thinking, to inclusive thinking. I don't see that evolution in Sen. Sanders' replies.

I'm still picking up my jaw from that comment, by the way. About being better on race than Pres. Obama. My jaw may never find its way back to me..