Bernie Sanders: Poor whites ‘were given ‘n—-rs’ to hate and look down on’

By Peter Hasson

Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders used the n-word in both his 1997 book “Outsider in the House,” as well as its updated 2015 version, “Outsider in the White House.”

Sanders used the word while accusing Republicans of playing “scapegoat” politics in 1996 by supporting policies like welfare reform, which Sanders described as a “slight variation on very old themes.”

Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“For a hundred years, the white workers of the South were the most exploited white workers in America. They were paid the lowest wages, they endured the worst working conditions, their housing was abysmal, their kids went to the most backward schools, and very few could send their children to college. But what did they have? They were given ‘niggers’ to hate and look down on, ‘niggers’ who couldn’t vote, drink at their water fountains, use the same bathrooms, or sit up front in the buses or movie theaters,” Sanders wrote in the book, a copy of which was reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Sanders said welfare reform was an example of racial scapegoating, and listed a series of racial stereotypes he said motivated supporters of welfare reform.

“The crown jewel of the Republican agenda is their so-called welfare reform proposal. The bill, which combines an assault on the poor, women and children, minorities, and immigrants, is the grand slam of scapegoating legislation, and appeals to the frustrations and ignorance of the American people along a wide spectrum of prejudices. Tired of high taxes and spending huge sums of money on people too lazy to work? Tired of paying black teenagers to stay home all day and have babies while you work your butt off? Tired of providing an incentive for Mexicans to skip over the border in the middle of the night? Welfare reform is for you!” Sanders wrote.

The passages remained in an updated version of Sanders’s book published in 2015, “Outsider in the White House,” which was also reviewed by the DCNF.

“It should not need to be explained that critiquing racism is not racism, but let’s give it a try. Senator Sanders is describing the well-documented racism and hatred that was used to divide the working class against itself in this country for hundreds of years. In fact, that entire chapter of the book is simply a recounting — and criticism — of the Republican strategy that was infamously described by GOP strategist Lee Atwater in 1981, which involved using racial bigotry and epithets to demonize people of color,” Sanders campaign spokeswoman Briahna Gray told the DCNF in an email.

“Senator Sanders was attacking that disgusting strategy and, of course, he would not use the word outside of this context. His entire political career has been dedicated to building a multi-racial coalition of working people to finally overturn the bloody legacy of racial hatred in our country,” Gray added.

When informed that the passage in which Sanders used the n-word did not contain a reference to Lee Atwater, and that a text search of “Outsider in the White House” found zero mentions of Atwater’s name, Gray replied that “even if [Sanders] didn’t reference Atwater’s Southern Strategy by name, he wouldn’t have had to for it to be recognizable.”

Seventy percent of Americans “think it’s never acceptable for a white person to use the N-word,” according to polling Pew Research Center released in April.

A 2018 survey by YouGov found that majorities of both black Americans and white Americans view the n-word as offensive and “it is worse when white people use it than when it is used by African-Americans.” Two-thirds of African-Americans said the word’s use “is even more offensive when it is used by a white person.”

The survey also found that a plurality of Americans, and a majority of Democrats, said a white person using the n-word means “the person is a racist.”

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Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr

7 thoughts on “Bernie Sanders: Poor whites ‘were given ‘n—-rs’ to hate and look down on’

  1. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” – President Lyndon B. Johson

  2. It’s only a matter of time that this hippie racist and crazy Joe Biden will be playing checkers in a nursing home and drooling in their laps. People keep watching all the gaffes Biden makes but lazy Bernie is much more dangerous with all the ideas he keeps coming up with that will destroy our Country. Too bad he never had any ideas for his own gainful employment until he earned his first paycheck at 40 years old.

  3. The lying commie who aligns himself with demonicrats who:
    WERE the KKK
    Were the slave owners
    didn’t want the blacks to vote
    didn’t want the blacks to have guns
    were the implements of jim crow laws
    and kept them on the plantation with welfare is trying to pin the blame on Republicans. Burnee must think all people are history challenged like the bozos that support him. You’re the Racist burnee along with being a slug who’s done nothing but suck the teat of government for your entire life.

  4. So now Bernie and his democrat socialists co-conspirators gives us financially successful Americans (the 1%) to hate. He tends to forget to mention that many of these people worked hard for their success implying that their wealth was stolen from the masses. It’s a little scary to recall that this is the same tactic that is used by every rabble rousing, bomb throwing would be dictator. Peron, Chavez, Castro, Mussolini, Lenin, Hitler.

    While I don’t like Trump very much if someone sane doesn’t turn up It’ll be necessary to vote for him again.

  5. What can I say he’s an “Idiot”, this fool wants to be President….. God Help Us !!

    I still can’t believe people listen & follow his BS rhetoric, he’ll promise you anything for your
    vote, knowing none of his claims will ever come to fruition……

    Socialist Sanders, living on Capitalism, promoting Socialism, besides being an Idiot he a Hypocrite.

  6. maybe poor democrats but not poor Republicans… we fought democrats to free slaves – guess you missed that? But then your a socialist, they murdered well over 100,000,000 people over the past century, makes democrats look like saints…

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