Amid this backlash, Hillary Clinton has carefully defended her husband, but not entirely his record. She has called for new laws to combat racial profiling and broadly reform the criminal justice system, moves that would in effect reverse some of the policies of her husband.
When Sanders suggested Hillary Clinton had used a “racist term, and everybody knew it was a racist term” in suggesting there were “super-predators” in the 1990’s who were driving the increase in the crime rate, the former secretary of state did not bother to defend herself against a very sharp charge, instead highlighting her proposals for the future.
“The Black Lives Matter movement has been incredibly effective at challenging many political orthodoxies and these policies,” said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University. “The movement has exposed the racialized nature of these policy debates and raised crucial questions about reform.”
For his part, Sanders has also aligned himself with Jesse Jackson, whose racial protest tactics Bill Clinton has criticized in the past.
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