NEW YORK––A crowd of over 28,000 mostly-white people gathered in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for a Bernie Sanders campaign rally on April 17, 2016.
Despite this massive turnout, Sanders lost to his fellow democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, in the New York primary which took place on April 19, 2016.
The U.S. presidential candidate enlisted a parade of activists and celebrities to endorse him during the rally.
After receiving an introduction by actor Danny Devito, Sanders began his speech by discussing his childhood in Brooklyn. It didn’t take him very long before he started with his usual routine of political rhetoric to the crowd.
The “democratic-socialist’’ dropped the word “revolution” repeatedly throughout the speech yet never spoke of bringing real revolution.
He presented a laundry list of things that he and secretary Hillary Clinton disagreed on such as voting in favor of attacking Iraq in 2003.
What Sanders failed to mention, however, was what they do have in common‒‒their opposition to reparations.
He spoke of reforming the pigs yet never mentioned black community control of the police.
Sanders spoke in defense of the pigs, despite the terror they bring on African communities, by saying, “The overwhelming majority of police are honest, hardworking and do a difficult job.” He fails to acknowledge that cops are an arm of the State with the sole purpose of protecting the interests of the white ruling class, at the expense of the working class.
Sanders suggested more jobs and education to “get these kids off the street corner” as the way to stop the mass incarceration of African people.
He drove the point home to his enthusiasts with the phrase “jobs and education, not jail and incarceration.”
Sanders fails to realize that African people are also being terrorized and murdered by the State in their own homes, not just on the street corners.
Bernie Sanders directly addressed African people very few times and this was only to talk about healthcare, schools and drinking water. He spoke of the water poisoning of Africans in Flint, MI as a simple environmental issue and not as genocide against an African population.
The crowd broke into a thunderous applause when he spoke of his plans for a $15 per hour minimum wage cap.
Bernie Sanders is the ultimate distraction for African people because he pretends to fight for our wellbeing but if we listen carefully, we will realize that he is only the other side of the same dirty coin.
Sanders wont bring revolution
Bernie’s “revolution” is not revolution because it does not involve changing the relationship between those in power––the white ruling class––and those they extract it from––the working class.
In order for Sanders to make a true revolution, he must strive to see the current system of capitalist-colonialism overturned and destroyed. He must see to it that Africans are paid reparations for slavery and all the atrocities that we have faced since its abolishment.
Sanders must understand that real revolution involves the African working class having control over our own land, resources and lives.
Anything else presented before us is an insult.
Sanders’ plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour is an insult to the African working class people, especially in Brooklyn where white gentrification is forcing them out through raised rents and an higher cost of living.
African people will find ourselves in a cycle of begging for higher slave wages if we do not fight for the return of our resources now.
It is an insult to have pigs terrorize our community and then suggest that our youth get off of the street corner of those same communities that belong to us. Suggesting that African people work jobs to protect our lives is not a solution as African people have been working for over 500 years.
Furthermore, Tamir Rice was too young to work when he was murdered by the pigs.
Sanders even had the nerve to promise the Indigenous people of the U.S. a renewed relationship and recognition of broken treaties. He says this as he is running for the position of president in the government that occupies their land.
Bernie Sanders’ definition of “revolution” is a joke.
Don’t believe the hype and don’t feel the Bern!
Forward the real revolution!
