Stop Bernie-Splaining to Black Voters
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/opinion/campaign-stops/stop-bernie-splaining-to-black-voters.html?_r=0Now that Iowa and New Hampshire are vanishing in the rearview mirror, the Democratic contests shift more West and South — beginning with Nevada and South Carolina, states that have significantly more Hispanic or black voters, respectively, who at this point disproportionately favor Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders.
This support for Clinton, particular among African-American voters, is for some perplexing and for others irritating.
I cannot tell you the number of people who have commented to me on social media that they don’t understand this support. “Don’t black folks understand that Bernie best represents their interests?” the argument generally goes. But from there, it can lead to a comparison between Sanders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; to an assertion that Sanders is the Barack Obama that we really wanted and needed; to an exasperated “black people are voting against their interests” stance.
If only black people knew more, understood better, where the candidates stood — now and over their lifetimes — they would make a better choice, the right choice. The level of condescension in these comments is staggering.
Sanders is a solid candidate and his integrity and earnestness are admirable, but that can get lost in the noise of advocacy.
Tucked among all this Bernie-splaining by some supporters, it appears to me, is a not-so-subtle, not-so-innocuous savior syndrome and paternalistic patronage that I find so grossly offensive that it boggles the mind that such language should emanate from the mouths — or keyboards — of supposed progressives.
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JURY: This is a column from the New York Times.
You hit that one on the head!
White guy, but I can understand by analogy. My educational department (anthropology)
is packed full of all sorts of diverse people (well, except apparently, minorities 
); socialists,
avowed Marxists, anarchists, don't give a shit-ists. And I'm cool, and agree with 90% of their
talking points, criticisms, etc. But whenever I diverge, I don't get the well-reasoned rebuttals
I would expect from my fellow grad students. Instead, I get those canned responses, similar to
those noted in the OP, "well, you just don't get it. You haven't studied the literature well
enough. You're blind or something. False consciousness." or something of the like.
Condescension, through and through - intellectual, racial, gendered - just condescension.
