One reason for their skepticism towards the Vermont socialist’s candidacy might be that, as a historically disadvantaged minority group, blacks have not had the luxury of making the perfect the enemy of the good. With its utterly fantastical pledges (free public college for everyone!) and progressive utopian aesthetic, Sanders’ campaign was the epitome of the bourgeois bohemianism satirized by the website “Stuff White People Like.”
To put it more bluntly: Indulging the Sanders campaign was a form of white privilege; black voters cannot afford to be romantic about politics to the same extent white ones can. They have long been treated to appeals from old white socialists promising them the moon, and with Sanders, were appropriately skeptical not only of his ability to deliver, but to win…
Black opposition to Trump is much easier to comprehend. Though many seem to have forgotten, the real estate mogul’s latest political incarnation began several years ago with his endless racist insinuations that Obama is not even an American citizen, a stance he now disavows begrudgingly and without any explanation.
From the day he launched his candidacy, Trump’s campaign has been one, long unsubtle appeal to white nationalism. Black protesters have been frequently assaulted at his campaign rallies, which, in their seething, howling rage and almost entirely white complexion, more and more resemble something far more frightening.
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