Bernie Sanders - 'When You're White You Don't Know What It's Like To Be Poor'

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: spiritualzombie
a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

Yes, it's so racist to offer support against racism...
I can't think of anything more vile than someone with empathy and a desire to help.

The Boy who cried Wolf

There was a Shepherd Boy who tended his sheep at the foot of a mountain near a dark forest. It was lonely for him, so he devised a plan to get a little company. He rushed down towards the village calling out “Wolf, Wolf,” and the villagers came out to meet him. This pleased the boy so much that a few days after he tried the same trick, and again the villagers came to his help. Shortly after this a Wolf actually did come out from the forest. The boy cried out “Wolf, Wolf,” still louder than before. But this time the villagers, who had been fooled twice before, thought the boy was again lying, and nobody came to his aid. So the Wolf made a good meal off the boy’s flock.

Calling people racists for merely disagreeing with your opinion does more damage to those with legitimate claims of being victims of racism than those who actually commit the act of racism! Kind of muddies the whole system up, don't ya think?

I agree with your last statement. I'm a social justice ally. But the constant and almost cannibalistic nature of where it is going, where the slightest disagreement on some sub point of social justice ideology may earn derision or even accusations of racism, is really worrisome.

I agree with you that the constant claims of racism, privilege, etc, are diminishing the real movement and legitimate cases of racism. This is what I think too many "social justice warriors" don't get, that their methodology is actually not constructive to the cause. It alienates people.

If this country is so racist and so anti-black how did we elect a black man TWICE as our leader? I am so tired of people making it about race,

No black actors nominated at the Oscars, boycott it. Don't worry about Chris Rock being the host, it has to be racism.

Everyone has equal opportunity in this country to make something out of themselves. If you spend more time working to better yourself and less time whining about people holding you down you might just get out of the ghetto.

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

What real movement? Cause I finally figured it out, there isn't one. It's all a bunch of lies so we do exactly what they want us to do. There is no grand cause, there is no movement. It's all a lie. All of it.

Get your head out of the sand. I just now did. Today. At my last post. I finally got the point, and the point is, there isn't one.

originally posted by: Kitana
a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

What real movement? Cause I finally figured it out, there isn't one. It's all a bunch of lies so we do exactly what they want us to do. There is no grand cause, there is no movement. It's all a lie. All of it.

Get your head out of the sand. I just now did. Today. At my last post. I finally got the point, and the point is, there isn't one.

With all due respect, there are lots of people and organizations that legitimately work on social justice issues, and do real work. As in, they work on evidenced based interventions for disadvantaged communities, from improving education systems to health care outcomes.

Just because some SJWs have taken it too far, and politicians are pandering, doesn't mean there aren't real issues nor that other people aren't doing real work to address them.

This is the primary issue I have with the SJWs, they are making people like you dismiss the real movement.

originally posted by: Nyiah
My mother & I were homeless once in my teens. I think cumulatively, it was about 2 months or so in total? Not a dime, a few boxes of stuff, 2 cats & a car.

I can agree with Bernie in that I really don't, and hopefully won't, understand what it's like to be truly poor. Destitute poor. Sure, I WAS homeless. But it was a temporary deal, not lifelong. The rest of our belongings not in the boxes we hung on to were in a storage facility. It's why we didn't have a dime to spend (my mother's financial priorities were never all that great)

I've been all over the income ladder throughout my life, but I've never had to live year after year utterly destitute. My white butt can understand exactly what he means -- I DON'T know what it's like to live my entire life like that. TEMPORARY poverty isn't the same as living it day after day, month after month, year after year, generation after generation. We suck to an epic degree at making sure poverty-prone & heavy minorities are ok. Ask any Native American on a reservation. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to agree we temporarily po' white folk don't have any clue.

Yes, but some white people HAVE lived a lifetime of poverty.

originally posted by: marg6043
a reply to: neo96

Sanders pandering to minorities is not new, all candidates do for votes, then turn around and crap on the working class once in power, but alas, Sanders is a socialist, he wants to rob the rich class for the poor, wait there, the rich will never let Sanders rob them. he will go after the working class to rob them for the poor, yes, isn't that what most politicians do?

From all the politicians running right now, Sanders is the least intelligent of the bunch He blames boring curriculums for his academic shortcomings.

Except people like you seem to not get that it was the rich who first "robbed" from the poor and middle class. Our entire system is geared to extract resources from everybody BUT the rich and then give those resources to the wealthy.

All people like Sanders are saying is that we need to fix the system so the dividends from our economy are shared relatively more equitably, instead of a small percentage getting all of the spoils. I feel strongly that nobody being rational and ethical can disagree with this.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: Dragoon01

Wow those statements look suspiciously like Socialist political demands. Wait those are Nazi political planks so they cant be Socialist since we all know the Nazis were right wingers and Socialism is left wing brilliant perfect political philosophy designed to help people of all origins live in a perfect peaceful world......

Left wingers are masters of revisionist history.

Masters of transference.

The nazi party has more in common with the left than right.

False, literally everyone but the American right says the opposite.

Part of traditional far right wing narratives is hyper-nationalism, religious fundamentalism and conflation of that with nationalism, authoritarianism, racism/xenophobia, and militarism. All of these the American right consistently is for, on average. All of these things also were elements of the Third Reich. You can claim all you want that Fascism was left wing, but basically no expert agrees with you.

a reply to: chuck258

I hear you, as my kids wore hand me downs, usually to big for them, remember the old truck my then roofer husband used to drive, he had to put transmission fluid in it everyday to get to work. We had a lot of old trucks,

I remember when a friend gave my daughter an old hooptie,

hooptie
Any car that meets the following: a) driver must enter car through passenger side b) three different brand and size tires - 3 of them missing hubcap c) exhaust is held up by half a clothes hanger - other half replaces the antenna d) backfires every three blocks - loudest backfire being when car is turned off e) must open door at drive-threws as windows don't roll down f) you only get one AM station and the tape deck eats all tapes inserted g) can't open the glove box as the whole thing will fall out h) if you let go of steering wheel while driving you'll make a u-turn i) must manually move blinker lever up and down as it no longer blinks on it's own j) must keep one foot on brake and one on accelerator when at a complete stop k) has had the same temporary registration sticker in the window for the last 18 months l) has all the above issues but still has a $200 professional tint job

you would have thought she was just given a new car, she rear-ended a guy and crushed the hood, my husband smashed it back down with a sledge hammer, lol, it ran good, and never under estimate duct tape. in a lot of way poverty makes people a different breed.
,
I love the poor, they are the salt of the earth, my daughter and granddaughter live in rickety ole trailers, both go to work everyday, my daughter had a leaky roof so bad it was like a waterfall, for two years she had an old billboard sign on it, until she could fix it piece by piece, through breast cancer, and now heart failure at 46.

I could go on about the years of lay offs, no utilities, hunting for food, hauling water in with milk cartons to flush the toilets and wash the clothing,

Things are better now, but my children still struggle and I still live in the inner city, never owned a home, I see the homeless and the lines at the soup kitchen,

Inner city folks come in all colors, and It's not so bad.

WE have a lot of laughs

Screw Sanders

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

Part of traditional far right wing narratives is hyper-nationalism, religious fundamentalism and conflation of that with nationalism, authoritarianism, racism/xenophobia, and militarism. All of these the American right consistently is for, on average

There is nothing false about it.

I guess if one IGNORED the last 8 years of hope, and change,Occupy Wall Street,BLM, and how 'Whitey' is the cause of all minorities problems.

That is xenophobia.

That is racism.

And to make things 'equal' push state authoritarianism.

For over a decade I have listened to the LEFT repeatedly liken themselves to the 'master race'.

Although not in those exact words, but by their actions.

I have never heard a 'right' winger use that quoted material. EVER.

Abolishing ALL income NOT derived from work ?

Only the FASCIST left wingers.

Their non stop obsession with Wall Street, Rich people, Bankers,Ceo's, and every other villain they manufacture.

Just like Sanders manufacturing White folks 'not' knowing what it's like to be poor..

That is a statement of FACT.

Left wingers are masters of REVISIONIST history.

The Democrat party was created by a slave owner.

The KKK was created by Democrats.

Gun control was born out of the BIGOTRY. Democrats had for AA's.

The 'confederate' flag created by Democrats.

The marriage 'issue' was created because Democrats didn't want whites, and blacks marrying.

Lincoln was shot by a Democrat.

So when the LEFT, and people like Sanders, and Clinton 'talk' about racism.

Their party has a long sorid history of it.

a reply to: Kitana

Seriously?

Who gives a rats ass.

This thread was designed to stoke the fires of anti-Bernie hysteria through deliberate misquote. I don't care how persecuted you feel. This was never about you. This was about denying ignorance.

Since you guys seem so keen to embrace ignorance in all of its forms, you can have it.

originally posted by: Kali74
a reply to: Konduit

He's talking about institutional racism which is something most white people don't understand and certainly no white person in this country has ever experienced. He's right and a lot of people of all skin tones agree.

ETA: LOL @ people knee-jerking and crying pandering. The topic of institutional racism is an ongoing discussion/debate and something Bernie has subscribed to since the 60's.

I beg to differ on one severe point, you have no way of knowing what anyone white or otherwise has known in this country. I see homeless and broken "white" people daily. Ya know, comes from living in a metroplex and all. The only point of reference you have is your own, you are not the man under the bridge, you are NOT the "white" man I know personally who was homeless for 25 years. (If that isn't poor, than I would have to see what it is)

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14


I guess if one IGNORED the last 8 years of hope, and change,Occupy Wall Street,BLM, and how 'Whitey' is the cause of all minorities problems.

That is xenophobia.

That is racism.

Explain your use of the word "whitey". Explain xenophobia. Explain racism. I expect your use of the word "whitey" comes from the same part of you that believes in killing innocent muslims. That projection of hate at the center of your thoughts.

originally posted by: Kitana
a reply to: Malynn

If you people want to know about poverty come to the place in America full of white people that people from 3rd world nations say is worse than any 3rd world nation they have ever been to, as far as poverty is concerned.

There is no spin to what he said, that is not insulting to me. You cannot spin doctor such an ignorant statement.

But here's the difference, we want JOBS.

With all due respect, that is doubtful. I've worked on poverty both in the US and abroad for a decade.

For example, I've never seen anything like the poverty in India or Bangladesh here in the US.

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

True that

a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

The problem is that people are not left to be people.

And when we spend all this time "educating," I think what we really end up doing is training a whole new generation of racists on both sides. But hey, that works out swell for the activists because it's job security.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: Quetzalcoatl14

The problem is that people are not left to be people.

And when we spend all this time "educating," I think what we really end up doing is training a whole new generation of racists on both sides. But hey, that works out swell for the activists because it's job security.

The part in bold is the point. All any of this is, is job security. It's not about poverty, its not about helping people. It's politicians offering hand-outs so they keep their cushy jobs, its about the researchers and bureaucrats keeping their cushy jobs. This experiment is one which has nothing to do with poverty, or being kept down "by the man", or police brutality, it has nothing to do with any of it.

If your white, everyone around you tells you to pick your self up by the boot straps, focus focus focus, graduate high school and attend at least some college, if not go for a 4 year degree and no matter what don't go off the rails into party-ville along the way, they tell you don't marry until at least the age of 21 because research shows that your less likely to perpetuate the poverty cycle if you do these things.

But we are told blacks and minorities can't pull themselves up by their boot straps, we are told it's white people's fault that they cannot manage the same things we can in the same circumstances, that its the fault of white people somehow that they cannot focus on education, that its the fault of white people that they are drawn to crime, its the fault of white people that they cannot do the same things we have to, even in the same circumstances. They aren't white, so they are incapable of the same things. We have to give them more because they are incapable without more help than any white man ever got. We have to give them more because cops hate them.

But it's all BS. They can do the same things we can. The point of all this woah is me, is to perpetuate the cycle of poverty for the benefit of others, the point of lying to the American people, is to convince them we have to do the things which only perpetuate the cycle because they are incapable of the same things we are. And its BS for job security, is BS for votes, its just complete BS that blacks are too ignorant to do the same things we both are asked to do, and can do.

They aren't too ignorant, and its not our fault. They can pull themselves up from their circumstance if they want, if they focus, if they do the same things we have to do to pull ourselves up. We are being sold nothing but a lie for the job security of others - and the racists who think they deserve the hand-outs more than they deserve to be treated as equals.

Well, they are the racists. Not whites who say the blacks can do the same things we can. Not the whites. Its the blacks who think they deserve their life and livelihood given to them, and the politicians, intellectuals and bureaucrats who earn their livelihood by these means. They are the racists, and they are perpetuating the biggest lie ever and selling it to Americans who are buying it hook line and sinker.

It's all nothing but one big lie.

What to say?...

That he was responding to a specific question conveniently not provided?

"In a speech about policing, the FBI director James Comey borrowed a phrase saying, “everyone is a little bit racist.” What racial blind spot do you have? "

So...in responding to the question about racial blind spot...does a white person discuss white people?

So he omitted white people from "poor"..Cuz when asked about a racial blind spot...A white person answering by talking about white people's experience would be strange?

Do you think he believes there are no poor white people?

Or do you think he was answering a question about what he might not fully grasp about the African American community? "racial blind spot"?

Logic counts...doesn't it?

That said...

Post-war America...the 1950's...was a boom time for the White Middle Class...you could work hard and raise a family with a blue collar job and if you saved enough even send one or maybe even all your kids to college.

It has been sliding backwards at an accelerating pace ever since the 1970's...women entering the workforce gave a brief blip in real income for the middle class and then the slide continued.

what is left of the white middle class is largely the generational descendants of those hard working families from the 1950's and 1960's...but cost of living, energy, food, stagnant wages and massive costs of college have thoroughly reversed the growth of the middle class and the future prospects of their children.

Yes...There are a lot of white people in poverty right now and it is growing...

All that said..African Americans never got their 1950's moment to boost them economically and generationally..

About 10% of whites in the USA live in Poverty and 26% of African Americans..(2014)
kff.org...

The US Census declared that in 2014 14.8% of the general population lived in poverty:[43]
10.1% of all white non-Hispanic persons
12.0% of all Asian persons
23.6% of all Hispanic persons (of any race)
26.2% of all black persons.
en.wikipedia.org...

So...yes there are more African Americans living in poverty and with more multi-generational poverty...

But whites are catching up...

Ironically...give it another 20 years...and we will have fully achieved "equality" amongst the poor as accelerating inequality in income continues to drag more and more of the middle class into poverty.

Then everyone can shout...see! ...25% of whites are now living in poverty too! Just like African Americans...

Of course I'd prefer the better solution of fixing the economy in a way that saves the middle class and provides opportunity for everyone, regardless of color...

But that aint the system we have now...African Americans suffer the most in poverty...and middle class whites are joining them more and more every year..

Waiting for someone to propose a fix to that...Jobs..education...A fair tax code without loop-holes that treat the top 5% like coddled royalty. No one needs or deserves a hand-out, but everyone deserves opportunity and a level playing field...and that is what we have less and less of in this country...for all colors of people. We gotta fix that if we are going to survive.

originally posted by: Konduit



But this has to be one of the biggest gaffes in the history of politics.

"I was against the individual mandate before I was for the individual mandate. What happened was that I got elected and didn't have to be against it anymore" (Simplified version of Obama's stance on the individual mandate)

Not that Bernie Sanders is one bit better than Obama. Just sayin'. Obama got away with some whoppers. And people who support him just don't care. He lied to everybody. Not just people who care.

Anyway, Sanders scares me for the same reason the knowledge that Obama still has some time left in office scares me.

originally posted by: 0zzymand0s
a reply to: Kitana

Seriously?

Who gives a rats ass.

This thread was designed to stoke the fires of anti-Bernie hysteria through deliberate misquote. I don't care how persecuted you feel. This was never about you. This was about denying ignorance.

Since you guys seem so keen to embrace ignorance in all of its forms, you can have it.

Just to clarify this is Sanders' EXACT quote, since you think he was 'misquoted'

"When you’re white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto. 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".

1) Bernie equates "ghetto" with poor. Which overlooks and DISMISSES poor Whites

2) Then he follows up with the GEM of a statement that Whites don't know what it's like to be POOR

3) Just because it's not called a 'ghetto" doesn't mean they aren't LOADS of White neighborhoods across the country that are equivalent to a 'ghetto'...in both crime AND poverty.

4) Then he claims Whites don't know what it's like to be hassled by cops, or dragged out of a car.


FACE IT...Bernie's entire statement was GARBAGE, dismissive, and racist.

His own words speak for themselves.