Ta-Nehisi Coates Blasts Bernie Sanders For ‘Alarming’ Rhetoric On Race
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Ta-Nehisi Coates slammed Bernie Sanders for being far too focused on white working-class voters — at the expense of blacks and other racial minorities.
In an essay for The Atlantic, titled “Donald Trump Is the First White President,” Coates faulted Sanders for using “alarming” and “shocking” language on race, class and the issue of political correctness.
Near the top of Coates’s complaints was the fact that Sanders once parodied the Clinton campaign for its stress on race, saying at a rally last year: “It’s not good enough for somebody to say: ‘Hey, I’m a Latina, vote for me.’ That is not good enough. I have to know whether that Latina is going to stand up with the working class of this country and is going to take on big money interests.”
Coates credited Hillary Clinton with running a race-conscious campaign, but also blasted her for having used blacks while her husband was president to build electoral support among the white working class.
The Atlantic essay is an excerpt from the upcoming Coates book, “We Were Eight Years in Power.”
Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter, @DanielJSolomon
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
