Two days ago, a Sanders supporter on Daily Kos made the following comment:
nonwhites are voting against their own rational self interest then.
I’m sorry but if the african americans and latinos think Hillary is their Candidate they’re fools.
I called the comment very offensive and, a few exchanges later, received this reply:
I’m sorry but if Sanders contributions to the black community aren’t “sufficent” in spite of everything he’s done for them You can’t please everyone so don’t bother trying.
Last night, a diarist asked, “Why are POC [people of color] standing so strong for Hillary?” and highlighted the things Sanders has done on racial issues.
NYT columnist Charles Blow has a problem with these types of questions. In an op-ed, he does not argue for one candidate over the other but instead explains why he takes offense when Sanders supporters appear to question whether black people who prefer Hillary Clinton know what they are doing:
I cannot tell you the number of people who have commented to me on social media that they don’t understand this support. “Don’t black folks understand that Bernie best represents their interests?” the argument generally goes. But from there, it can lead to a comparison between Sanders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; to an assertion that Sanders is the Barack Obama that we really wanted and needed; to an exasperated “black people are voting against their interests” stance.
If only black people knew more, understood better, where the candidates stood — now and over their lifetimes — they would make a better choice, the right choice. The level of condescension in these comments is staggering.
[Emphasis in the original]
He goes on to praise Sanders for his advocacy and earnestness before delving further into why what he calls “Bernie-splaining” bothers him:
Tucked among all this Bernie-splaining by some supporters, it appears to me, is a not-so-subtle, not-so-innocuous savior syndrome and paternalistic patronage that I find so grossly offensive that it boggles the mind that such language should emanate from the mouths — or keyboards — of supposed progressives.
But then I am reminded that the idea that black folks are infantile and must be told what to do and what to think is not confined by ideological barriers. The ideological difference is that one side prefers punishment and the other pity, and neither is a thing in which most black folks delight.
He suggests that black people do not love Clinton or loathe Sanders but that for some black voters, it comes down to “choosing between the devil you know and the one you don’t.” He also theorizes that more pragmatic black voters are apprehensive about Sanders’ “grand plans” and analyzes the historical basis for their pragmatism. (Please see the original article for Blow’s analysis.) Blow then suggests the following:
It is not black folks who need to come to a new understanding, but those whose privileged gaze prevents them from seeing that black thought and consciousness is informed by a bitter history, a mountain of disappointment and an ocean of tears.
Blow also cautions all democrats not to overlook an important message from the New Hampshire and Iowa primaries: republicans are turning out more voters than democrats. If the trend holds, warns Blow, democrats may lose congressional seats regardless of who they nominate. This is something BrooklynBadBoy warned Clinton and Sanders supporters about in this post-Iowa caucus diary: www.dailykos.com/…
Blow sums up his concerns about “Bernie-splaining” in words far more eloquent than I could manage:
This is not to say that Clinton or Sanders is the better choice for Democrats this season, but simply that the way some of Sanders’s supporters have talked down to black voters does him a disservice, and makes clear their insensitivity to the cultural and experiential political knowledge that has accrued to the black electorate.
Important black people whose work I admire have endorsed Sanders and Clinton during this election. They have offered well-reasoned explanations for their choices. Racial issues are important to me, but as a white woman, I would never presume to tell black voters that I have better insight than they do as to which candidate is best on racial issues or will do more for people of color. In fact, I trust black voters to help me understand which candidate is best on racial issues.