Finally, Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders' stakes out a position on race

Black Lives Matters activists interrupted Bernie Sanders Seattle rally on Social Security.

SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS chose to unveil his plank on combating racial inequality in the whitest city in America. 

A day after being confronted by black activists in Seattle, Sanders, battling for the Democratic presidential nomination, released his first detailed statement on race relations in Portland, a city some call the whitest big city in America because 75% of it's residents are white.

Not coincidentally, he drew 28,000 to his Portland rally, the largest crowd he's addressed during his campaign vs. favorite Hillary Clinton. That apparent disconnect between his campaign and people of color is part of the problem.

"We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic," his racial justice platform begins.


At a Netroots Nation town hall held in Phoenix in July, BLM activists interrupted Sanders and Gov. Martin O'Malley, asking the candidates about their positions on racial justice.

Shortly thereafter, O'Malley made the matter a part of his campaign and outlined a detail position on the issue. “For too long, our justice system has reinforced our country’s cruel history of racism.”

Sanders, on the other hand (perhaps the toil of the campaign was starting to get to him) responded defensively, "I've spent 50 years of my life fighting for civil rights. If you don't want me to be here, that's OK." 

The protesters were unimpressed, according to Dara Lind writing for Vox. "Your 'progressive' is not enough," Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and one of the protesters who took the stage, told the press as a message to Sanders and other presidential candidates. "We need more." 

RELATED: If you are interested in this issue and want to dive deeper, Lind's article is an excellent starting point.

At an event in Houston the following day, Sanders talked at length about Sandra Bland (who died in police custody in July), more than he had previously. 

The timing of the plank's appearance on Sander's website is hard to ignore, the day after the candidate was confronted by Black Lives Matter activists at his Seattle rally. The activists took over the microphone and shortly thereafter, Sanders left the stage without delivering his speech.

In Portland the next day, Sanders introduced his newest star member, Symone Sanders, a black criminal justice advocate, to serve as his national press secretary. Sanders, who is of no relation to the candidate, introduced Senator Sanders at the Seattle event on Saturday.

Even though Symone Sanders applied for the position weeks ago, the timing of the announcement of her hiring seems to be more than coincidence. 

Representing Vermont, a state that is 95% white and only 2.4 percent Asian, we were beginning to wonder if the senator has had many encounters with people of color and/or their issues. His appeal as a democratic socialist who attacks Wall Street's big money by raging about income inequality is gaining momentum and making frontrunner Clinton's campaign start to notice.

His platform is a detailed document that outlines his position on racial inequality and justice. It is unfortunate that he has to be confronted before he released this statement. He has won praise from activists for at least we know that he acknowledges the issues surrounding race is still unresolved in this country despite having the first African/American president. This admission is a huge step forward. 

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and reelected in 2012, many people thought that America had passed the test of race and we were living in a "post-racial" society. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Obama served as a flashpoint for the fearful racists. If anything, the events of the last few years and how conservatives disrespected the Office of the President, demonstrates that the opposite is true.

The strong white backlash towards having a black President brought the racists out of the woodwork. With no one grown-up enough, or strong enough to temper their views, conservative luminaries and the Fox network made it socially acceptable (or, at least in those far-right circles) for bigots to share their biased views without the filter of civility. (Lest  you forget the unprecedented act of a congressman shouting "You lie!" during the president's State of the Union.) Other incidents - too numerous to mention - indicate that racism is no longer a social faux pas in the America of 2015.

Just because President Obama is not a candidate this time around doesn't mean we are finished talking about race. We saw bias in play the other night in the first Republican candidates' debate, during which Dr. Ben Carson was basically ignored. Views From The Edge will continue to cover the Presidential campaigns in the coming months.

We here at the Edge, hope that Sander's campaign doesn't dissolve into that tired old paradigm of only a black and white America. America's diversity is much more complicated than that. While African-Americans, or "black Americans" were mentioned throughout Sanders' platform statement, "Latino" was mentioned only once. "Asian-American" or "Pacific Islander" were not mentioned at all. 

EDITOR'S  NOTE: There is an Asian-Americans for Bernie Sanders Facebook page, but I have no idea how legitimate it is or if it is affiliated with Sander's campaign.

All the candidates - Democratic, Republican or whatever party - need to make their positions clear where they stand on social and racial justice, immigration reform, the tilted criminal justice system, affirmative action and the ever-widening disparities in wealth, health and education. 

To Sander's supporters please understand:  It is not enough to just limit your conversations to economic justice as the cure-all for America's ills. If you think income inequality is bad for the country, overlay that issue with America's current state of race relations, the problem gets more complex by ten. To people of color, income inequality and racial inequality go hand-in-hand. You cannot address one without grappling with the other.

That's why Black Lives Matter activists and other people of color want the issue in the forefront, not shuffled off to the margins of this presidential campaign. We're tired of waiting around for candidates to acknowledge our issues, our presence. That's why some feel that they have to take matters into their own hands at the risk of alienating the progressive supporters of Sanders and the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party. That's why we're impatient. That's why we're angry. 

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