I think it's safe to say that a mod should just delete the entire third page of this thread.
First of all, Sanders is a class reductionist. This is blatantly obvious in how he roots everything in economics. Why is this article surprising or "gotcha" at all? I genuinely believe that Sanders believes that the only way these issues get solved is by addressing the economic issues as the catalyst; it's not that he doesn't care about the issues. The only reason he's caving now and talking about issues such as this from a social angle is the same reason that Clinton is: because the country is programmed to think in terms of identity politics first and foremost.
Secondly and in a physical/tangible sense, there are no such concepts as the "black community" or "black leaders" in Vermont. There are black people who live in Vermont. The state is barely 1% black. The blackest precinct you'll find in the state is 6% black. The vast majority have moved there because they possess the socioeconomic ability to do so, and are voluntarily distributed geographically throughout the state in proportions that more closely resemble the distribution of the rest of Vermonters than they do any area where the concept of "black communities" and "black leaders" actually have cohesion, culture and influence.
"Addressing the concerns of the black community" in Vermont would require that there be a community in the first place. This organization in particular is based in a town of 7,000 people that has a 2% black population, and in which a large chunk of the organization's volunteers are white. One or two guys getting together monthly with a dozen people calling themselves a community effort isn't a force through which social change is going to occur, nor is it a legitimate vessel that can lobby or represent effectively the concerns of a supposedly-existent community. These are more than likely the salty ramblings of a couple of people in an "organization" that are pissed that a U.S. Senator didn't take them seriously
because they're not a serious organization.
Well, I can say this: it sure as hell isn't going to go away until the issue of economic inequality (and primarily, the effects of ignorance and poverty that it creates) is solved. Racism did not originate with blind hatred and disdain for one another along racial lines and it cannot be solved without acknowledging and correcting the class-based roots of it
first (or at least concurrently). Social engineering that requires individuals to behave differently under the law without addressing the root causes of why they prefer to behave in a different way only encourages new and more subversive ways for institutionalized racism to fester and grow, and that only become more difficult to call out over time.
We love to triage the pus and scabs. The modern, mainstream approach to "solving" racism is akin to putting a bandage on a tumor.
