Article #28: Education, Politics

During this election cycle, we always hear about how U.S. Democrat Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has a problem with the black vote. On the surface, that definitely looks true.

Against his current Democratic opponent, Sanders seems to have run into the same problem with African-Americans which his opponent ran into against current President Barack Obama back in 2008.

That problem is a seeming vice-grip on African-Americans voters.

How bad is it? Let’s just say that, in one state, his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, won African-American voters under 30 years of age by a 96-3 margin.

That victory was a landslide of epic proportions.

However, how it looks is not quite as simple as it looks.

Just as European-Americans in the United States of America had a few centuries worth of a head start on ‘minorities’ in the same country economically, Clinton started the campaign with a 15 year ‘national spotlight’ head start on Sanders.

Ironically, he’s been in politics for 15 years longer than her and has been fighting for the rights of African-Americans in the racial trenches for a half century. However…

…he hasn’t sought the spotlight, something that has become both virtue and vice in this election cycle.

Virtue: The virtuousness of his selflessness shows a history of caring more about the cause than what the cause could do personally for him.

Vice: The vice of his selflessness has caused him to not be able to start on an even footing on a national recognition scale with minorities, particularly African-Americans, against his Democratic opponent.

That is how one can muster up a 96-3 demographic victory against a candidate with such an amazing civil rights resume as Bernie Sanders.

It is because that margin of victory was cemented before there was mass knowledge about who Sanders was and is, let alone even the existence of him, specially in the African-American community.

There is a silver lining, though.

The more Bernie Sanders talks and is found out about, the more African-Americans turn his way, especially young people, particularly of average college age.

Here are some of those college Students, African-American specifically, speaking up about their support of him:

Bernie Sanders’ voice is strong, his message powerful and resonating, and it is reaching more and more African-Americans every day that passes. However…

…one can imagine that Hillary Clinton is hoping the clock runs out before most African-Americans wake up, turn over, and potentially start feeling the Bern.

Will it be in time for Sanders to make a historic come back? Only time will tell, and there’s not much of it left.