Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders opened up about their perceived “racial blind spots,” during Sunday’s Democratic debate, with both saying that as white people, they do not have much first-hand experience with problems African-Americans have faced.
The Democratic candidates both used the opportunity to rail against institutional racism, particularly a “broken criminal justice system” and various aspects throughout the government. The question from CNN’s Don Lemon came after FBI director James Comey said that “everyone is a little bit racist.”
“Being a white person in the United States of America, I know that I have never had the experience that so many people, the people in this audience have had,” Clinton “I think it’s incumbent upon me and what I have been trying to talk about during this campaign is to urge white people about what it is like to have the talk with your kids, scared that your sons or daughters even could get in trouble for no good reason whatsoever like Sandra Bland and end up dead in a jail in Texas.”
“I have spent a lot of time with the mothers of African-American children who lost them — Trayvon Martin’s mother. I got to know them. I’ve listened to them. It has been incredibly humbling because I can’t pretend to have the experience that you and others have had,” Clinton continued. “But I will do everything that I possibly can to not only do the best to understand and to empathize, but to tear down the barriers of systemic racism that are in the criminal justice system, in the employment system, in the education and health care system. That is what I will try to do to deal with what I know is the racism that still stalks our country.”
In his answer, Sanders told a story of how an African-American congressman about 20 years ago decided against getting cabs because drivers would drive “past” him rather than picking him up. He also pointed out that members of the Black Lives Matters movement told him that police officers are “bullying” individuals on a daily basis, before talking about what white people don’t realize goes on in everyday life.
“I would say … When you’re white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto,” Sanders said. “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.”
“I believe 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,” Sanders added.
