Asked about any racial blind spots he might have as a white man in America at Sunday night's CNN debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) gave a rather awkward answer that implied only minorities could be poor or live in poor areas.
"When you're white, you don't know what it's like to be living in a ghetto," he said. "You don't know what it's like to be poor. You don't know what it's like to be hassled when you walk down the street or you get dragged out of a car. And I believe that as a nation in the year 2016, we must be firm in making it clear we will end institutional racism and reform a broken criminal justice system."
A 2014 summary of the U.S. poverty rate by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 10 percent of whites lived in poverty nationally, as well as 24 percent of Hispanics and 26 percent of blacks.
Sanders' response drew mockery online:
That look when Bernie Sanders says you don't know what it's like to be poor. pic.twitter.com/RjIELmgvDP
— Miles Kahn (@mileskahn) March 7, 2016
Bernie Sanders actually said that white people don't know what it's like to be poor. He seems to think there aren't poor whites.
— Amy Fried (@ASFried) March 7, 2016
Wow! Bernie Sanders said "white people don't know what it's like to live in the ghetto". You can't fight racism with racist statements sir
— JJ Hairston (@JJ_Hairston) March 7, 2016
Bernie Sanders: "When you are white you don't know what it's like to be poor"
LOL did I miss the part where I was rich
— Niki McCrea (@nikimccrea) March 7, 2016
Hey poor white people living in ghettos. Bernie Sanders says you don't know what it's like to experience those things, sorry.#DemDebate
— Justin Little (@Vernaculis) March 7, 2016