A note about context: (Patreon)

So, I don't 100% know who I'm voting for, but as a person whose job is about interpreting words, one thing that annoys me is when people take things out of context.

Allow me to explain.

A fan sent me a message today in order to educate me on the alleged problematic view Bernie Sanders had concerning his lack of exposure to black voters.

(Disclaimer: this is not a dis to the person who sent me this, as I'm sure this person was not intending to mislead or be malicious. Please don't go after them, or even get to arguing about who I or anyone should vote for, because this isn't about that. This is about breaking down how news organizations frequently like to spin things to keep you angry/sharing their misleading articles. Peep this video if you wanna know more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc-fxeMckm8&t=4m41s )

Now, the origin of this message was that this fan saw me on twitter making a point about people taking a Bernie Sanders quotes out of context (thread here: https://twitter.com/itstherapcritic/status/1098559287075504128 ), and this fan wanted to inform me that there were indeed many "in-context quotes" (his words) that show Sanders in an unflattering light, linking to an article that he believed proved his point.

And to be fair to their concern, I clicked the link and read on, as well as clicking the links in the article that the quote originated from, because if there's smoke here, I wanna know where the fire is.

And so y'all know I'm not lying, this is the article:

https://t.co/G4ZBbUQ7lT 

The headline:

Sanders: "I would lose if election decided by black voters"

And as you look below the quote, there appears to be a damning picture of two black women getting up in Bernie's face (Women that he ended up letting have the podium to speak their minds, btw. Quote: "Sanders' [stood] back and let[ the] activists who interrupted him at a Seattle rally take over the event." https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-sanders-peoples-summit-chicago-20170610-story.html )

But I digress, let's get to the reason why I wanted to make this post.

Basically, what's going on here is:

Headline: Even *BERNIE* admits black people won't vote for him!!!"

With the underlying subtext being: ...and ya know what THAT means! Must be racist, end of discussion, amirite!?

But here's the full Sanders quote:

"If the elections were held today, just among the African-American vote, we would lose. But I think we have a real path to winning the support of the African-American community for two reasons.

Number one, I'm just not well known in the African-American community... That's just simply the truth. We have to a lot better job in discussing my record which in the United States Congress is the strongest records of any member in terms of civil rights.

Number two, I think even more importantly... the African-American community and the Latino community are struggling in a nation in which our middle class is struggling... the issues that we are focusing on, rebuilding the economy and in the process creating UP TO 13 million decent paying jobs, many of those jobs will be for minority communities. Making public colleges and universities tuition free will benefit everyone in America, but even more so, the African-American community."

So, if you read the whole quote, it's about how he's saying he just doesn't have that much exposure to black audiences, and that he hopes that by continuing to push for policies that address the root causes of inequality, that will help expose him to more of that audience in order to help alleviate the harsh conditions of many lower class people (who happen to disproportionately be black and Latino).

And... I get it: I realize politicians usually use class struggle issues to override and ignore issues of minorities, but... this doesn't really seem like he's doing that. It feels more like a "rising tide lifts all ships" sort of thing.

Like... we know what "intersectionality" means, right?

I mean, I get that we're all trying to play "spot the racist" these days, but, what, do you want him to say he wants to *only* help lower class black people, and lower class white people can fuck off?

Obviously not, right? 

But I'm posting this to make a point.

This is not me telling you to vote for Sanders.

It's this:

Please, please, please, it's *imperative* that we read things *thoroughly* before we share them.

This Message Brought to you by Your Friendly Neighborhood Rap Critic,

Peace