While the gymnasium at Patrick Henry High School was packed with hundreds \u2013 most who came to hear from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders \u2013 it became clear that not everyone was \u201cfeeling the Bern.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanders was in town on Feb. 12 for a scheduled Democratic event later that evening but accepted an invitation from Neighborhoods Organizing for Change (NOC) to participate in its forum on Black America. While hundreds braved a long line in single digit temperatures to hear from the senator from Vermont, not all were ready to blindly endorse the candidate; even though he is seen as the most progressive when it comes to issues concerning African-Americans. Sanders\u2019 opponent, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, was also in town but declined the invitation from NOC. As it turns out, that might have been a wise decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the most part Sanders played well to the audience, which was noticeably diverse \u2013 especially considering the forum was supposed to be specific to Black issues. In many ways the event looked like a Sanders campaign rally \u2013 right down to the access badges that were stamped with the Sanders campaign logo. Introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison, who has endorsed him, Sanders immediately took aim at education reform and tied it to the criminal justice system, saying if elected president he would \u201cinvest in jobs and education, not jails and incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe criminal justice system is broken,\u201d said Sanders pointedly. \u201cWe will not continue to tolerate a system where unarmed African-Americans can be shot down by police. We need to put an end to the militarization of local police and we\u2019ve got to make police departments look like the diversity of the community they are serving and end the over-policing of the Black community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That line and others like it garnered thunderous applause, but the lovefest was short lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following his opening remarks Sanders took part in a discussion with several panelists invited by NOC. The questions ranged from policing of communities of color to prison reform to small business investment to food justice and urban pollution. Sanders seemed to be in accord with most of the audience, providing answers that were not the typical campaign rhetoric heard every four years. But the self-described Socialist hit a sour note \u2013 not by what he said, but by what he refused to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mica Grimm, a vocal leader of the Black Lives Matter movement, and who was not on the panel shouted out several questions to the candidate regarding reparations. Sanders engaged in uncomfortable dialogue with Grimm but that dialogue became even more uncomfortable when panelist Felicia Perry pressed the candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know you won\u2019t say, \u2018Black\u2019 and you won\u2019t say, \u2018reparations\u2019 and you keep lumping us in with other people, but today can we talk specifically about Black people,\u201d questioned Perry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sanders still refused to utter the word reparations, but in a bit of an angry retort (when someone else from the crowd echoed Perry\u2019s sentiment) the candidate said, \u201cI\u2019ve said Black 50 times I have no problem saying Black. There, I\u2019ve said it 51 times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, activist Clyde Bellecourt was handed a microphone and began speaking about Native-American issues and refused to return the microphone. While Bellecourt was speaking, Sanders walked as if he was leaving the stage but remained for a brief period and then interrupted Bellecourt, thanked the crowd and exited, abruptly bringing an end to the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The abrupt end did not seem to dampen the spirits of Anthony Newby, executive director of NOC who also made it clear that NOC was not endorsing Sanders or any other candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat we were able to do here was advance the conversation,\u201d said Newby. \u201cWhen before has a presidential candidate come to north Minneapolis to address our concerns? What he heard hear can help shape how he plans to deliver on his promises. What we heard and said here is it\u2019s not enough to just have aspirations without a specific plan in place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery time he (Sanders) said Black people he also said low income. That\u2019s what he thinks when he thinks about Black people. We\u2019re more than that. We\u2019re middle class \u2026 we\u2019re business owners. I appreciate him coming here but if he wants to be \u2018radical\u2019 as he says, he would say reparations,\u201d said Perry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panelist DeVon Nolen said the concerns of Perry and others are valid, but she was willing to cut Sanders some slack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel he has a better grip (on issues of Black Americans) than others,\u201d said Nolan. \u201cThe fact that he\u2019s willing to come here and talk about our concerns says a lot. Now when you talk about reparations, that\u2019s a loaded word, but there\u2019s a way to get reparations without saying reparations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While the gymnasium at Patrick Henry High School was packed with hundreds \u2013 most who came to hear from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders \u2013 it became clear that not everyone was \u201cfeeling the Bern.\u201d Sanders was in town on Feb. 12 for a scheduled Democratic event later that evening but accepted an invitation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2373,2321,2850],"class_list":["post-4613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-world","tag-neighborhoods-organizing-for-change-noc","tag-patrick-henry-high-school","tag-sen-bernie-sanders","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Insight-News-Website-Images-16-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4615,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4613\/revisions\/4615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}