Bernie Sanders’ Problems With Black Voters Go Much Deeper Than Him Just Blaming The Media (WaPo)

[big_dog]

As they see it, Sanders is arguing that the structure of the economy is the ultimate reason that America seems to be holding back its black citizens. It's too difficult for people in the working class to find a job and too expensive to get an education. That's true whether you're black or white, but since white families more likely have other advantages -- inherited wealth, for example, that allows them to borrow more easily to finance a college degree -- the economy's problems are more pronounced for black workers.

The seasonally adjusted black unemployment rate was 9.5 percent last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the white rate was 4.4 percent (black unemployment rates are usually twice that of white rates). Census data show that about 19 percent of the black population had at least a bachelor's degree last year, compared to 30 percent of the white population. The Pew Research Center found that the net worth of the typical white household was $141,900 in 2013. That amount was more than 13 times the typical black household's net worth of $11,000.

From the point of view of the protesters, though, this explanation has things backward. Since before the country's founding, they argue, the American economic elite has used race to divide workers against one another, preventing them from banding together and putting people such as Sanders in power who would alter the balance in the economy in favor of the working class. In other words, it isn't that the economy is the cause of racial disparities, but rather that racism is the cause of economic disparities.

"We have a fundamental disagreement with Bernie Sanders that racism is somehow an offshoot from economic exploitation when the reality is that race and class in America are inextricably linked to the rise of capitalism in this country," activist Kimberly Ellis told Weigel. http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/14/why-bernie-sanders-problems-with-black-voters-go-much-deeper-than-him-just-blaming-the-media/