On The Fact That Bernie Sanders, In His Capacity As A Recruiter For Vermont U, Hasn't Signed Many African American Players (A Fact That Suggests Racism By Mr. Sanders)

Except that this is not a fact. Bernie Sanders actually has absolutely nothing to do with who gets recruited to play basketball at Vermont U because he does NOT work or consult for the university. Although the Libertarian blogger Willis Hart seems confused on this matter.

Willis Hart: On the Fact that the University of Vermont's Basketball Teams (Men and Women) Are Comprised Mostly of White Players... What's the matter, Bernie? You don't like black people up there? (3/28/2016 AT 8:32pm).

As you can see from the images below (which show the teams Willis is referring to) there are Black players. If they didn't like Black people "up there" maybe they'd all be white? In any case WTF does Bernie Sanders have to do with which players the University of Vermont choses? Yeah, absolutely nothing.

Anyway, that Willis Hart, an individual who has demonstrated strong racial prejudices with numerous commentaries on his blog, is completely full of shit to suggest that Bernie Sanders is racist. Especially given the fact that Bernie Sanders' record of standing up for equality.

...Sanders has a 50-year history of standing up for civil and minority rights... As a student at the University of Chicago, Sanders was active in both the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1962, he was arrested for protesting segregation in public schools in Chicago; the police came to call him an outside agitator, as he went around putting up flyers around the city detailing police brutality. While President Bill Clinton and most Democrats in Congress supported so-called welfare reform politics, Sanders not only voted against this policy change, but wrote eloquently against the dog whistle politics used to sell it, saying, "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". A frequent critique of Sanders is that he is from a very white state. While this is true, he certainly has not ignored issues that matter to people of color. In 2002, he achieved a 93% rating from the ACLU and a 97% rating by the NAACP in 2006. (19 Examples of Bernie Sanders' Powerful Record on Civil and Human Rights Since the 1950s by Zaid Jilani. AlterNet 7/20/2015).

The facts show that Bernie Sanders has been fighting for equality for his whole life, so when Willis Hart says Bernie Sanders doesn't like Black people - the facts say he's full of shit.

And, as the AlterNet article points out, Sanders is from a state that is 77.4% White and 13.2% Black, so, that Vermont's basketball teams only have a few Black players is obviously due to demographics and not racism. Yet more proof that Willis Hart is a total moron!

Images 1+2: The 2015-2016 Vermont Catamounts Men's and Women's basketball rosters.

OST #124