A National Apology for Slavery: Bernie Sanders | Civil Rights on Blog#42

Bernie Sanders spoke to Sirius-XM radio’s Joe Madison about race and slavery on Wednesday July 8th.  Sanders made the clearest statement on race and slavery any presidential candidate has ever made in recent memory. Listen:

*** The track has been pulled from SoundCloud.

https://soundcloud.com/joemadisontheblackeagle/senator-bernie-sanders-responds-to-apology-for-slavery

Here is a transcript of the radio broadcast:

Host Joe Madison of Sirius XM’s “The Black Eagle” asked Sanders, “If elected president of the United States, would you apologize for slavery?”

“You know, obviously, nobody in this generation is involved in slavery,” replied Sanders. “But as a nation, slavery is one of the abominations that our country has experienced. There is no excuse. What can we say about it? It was horrific, it killed millions of people who never made it even across the oceans, and it destroyed just the lives of so many people.”

“So as a nation – and I don’t think as a president, but as a nation – we have got to apologize for slavery, of course,” Sanders said.

Candidates on both sides of the political divide have always catered to the base in their bases. Bernie Sanders’ position on a national apology for slavery is consistent with his 50 years of service to the communities he has lived in, including as a member of SNCC at the height of the civil rights movement in Chicago.

The ball is in Hillary Clinton’s court. I’ve written about Bernie Sanders’ record on Civil Rights here, and Hillary Clinton’s handling of race issues here and here.

Sanders spoke at length about his economic policies and how they are designed to lift everyone, including African Americans:

“I think the economic agenda that we are outlying will impact very positively all working people in this country, especially people who are being hit the hardest right now, which is people in the African American community.”

The contrast between the top two Democratic contenders on race couldn’t be sharper.


Source:  Sanders: ‘We have got to apologize for slavery‘ – TheHill.com

 

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