Bernie Sanders was repeatedly pressed to endorse reparations tonight by his own supporters at a 'Black America' community forum.
'I know you’re scared to say ‘black,’ I know you’re scared to say ‘reparations,' panelist Felicia Perry said, then told him, 'Can you please talk specifically about black people and reparations?'
Sanders replied, 'You and I may have a disagreement on this,' but 'it's not just black. This is Latinos. There are areas of America, more rural areas where its whites, OK?
As he talked about income inequality and poverty in the 'African-American community an audience member interrupted to urge him to use the term 'black.'
'I've said 'black' 50 times. That's the 51st,' Sanders declared.
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Bernie Sanders was repeatedly pressed to endorse reparations tonight by his own supporters at a Black America forum in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sanders does not support reparations for slavery and said tonight at a Neighborhoods Organizing for Change event located in the heart of Minnesota's Native Americans population that he didn't have a magical solution to the problem.
Midway through the event the Democratic presidential candidate was asked about fixing 'historical grievances' in the context of Native Americans.
He said: 'Anybody who studies the history of our country knows that it has been a very rocky history, it has included the abomination of slavery, it has included horrendous attacks on the Native American community.'
'There's no ifs, buts and maybes about that.'
Unemployment, drug addiction and alcoholism in the Native American population are the result, he said.
'Simply throwing federal money and federal bureaucrats at the problem probably is not going to work,' he said. '
'What is going to work is a relationship with the federal government and the Native American communities, by which the federal government provides resources, but the...Native American communities work out the solutions that are most relevant to particular to their needs.'
Continuing, he said, 'Different people approach things in different way.... the best approach in my experience in government is not from a top down process but from a bottom up process.'
Perry later pressed him to talk about the issue in the context of blacks, though.
'It seems like every time we talk about black people and us getting something and systematic oppression...we have to include every other person of color,' she said.
Building on previous answers about jobs and education for African-Americans he had already given, tonight, Sanders said, 'This is a national issue' and we need 'to invest most heavily in those communities most in need.'
At the forum today, before Sanders arrived, Mike Griffin, the field director for the organization set the tone for the event and said, 'There's this cadence that they use to make us feel ashamed for someone who took a group of people, treated them like property, exploited their labor for over 400 years.
Multiple attendees shouted at Sanders about reparations throughout the 'Black America' community forum
Sanders does not support reparations for slavery and said tonight at a Neighborhoods Organizing for Change event located in the heart of Minnesota's Native Americans population that he didn't have a magical solution to the problem
The audience wasn't satisfied. An audience member shouted at him, 'We were promised reparations! We were told we were going to get it!'
Discussion facilitator Anthony Newby acknowledged the complaint and said reparations,' this room is clearly not afraid to talk about it' before moving on to other issues.
The topic of reparations first came up in the 2016 presidential race at the Fusion-sponsored Iowa Brown Black forum in January.
Sanders said in response to a question on whether he would support reparations, 'No, I don’t think so...the likelihood of getting through a Congress is nil.'
He also said, 'I think it would be very divisive. I think the real issue is, when we look at the poverty rate among the African American community, when we look at the high unemployment rate within the African American community, the incarceration rate within the African American community, we have a lot of work to do.'
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