My momma and I have talked about the current election a lot. The conversations usually start with us agreeing that the country is stuck in some strange, extended episode of The Twilight Zone (Rod Sterling’s original series, no less), wherein an openly racist, ableist, sexist and generally terrible person is leading in the GOP and one of the democratic candidates thinks she can whip and Nae-Nae her way into the black vote. She and I bemoan the condition the political process has found itself in, indicating that my mother, who has 30 years of life on me, can’t remember a time when an election has been this ridiculous. Then we conclude that we’ll simply vote for Sanders and move on with our lives.

Neither of us are particularly thrilled by that last bit.

Sanders is the only candidate I’ve considered voting for since he entered the race but not because I’m especially enthralled by him. It’s because the other candidates are laughable at best and incredibly violent at worst. Sanders is the lesser of evils. It’s a condition that seemed to be shared by President Obama in his race against Romney. I was not particularly in love with Obama (his policies, anyway. On a personal level, I consider Obama to be my favorite uncle who is super smart but also discusses trap music with me). But I was repulsed by Romney’s talk of managing the country in a way that I assume CEOs talk about managing corporations. I feel like picking Sanders is the only thing that makes sense given the other “options.”

But Sanders is not perfect. Not even close. I see Sanders as the mature version of many white liberals I’ve encountered; he claims to be down for dismantling white supremacy but completely misses the mark on how to dismantle white supremacy.

Ta-Nehisi Coates recently published an article in The Atlantic that perfectly articulates Sanders’ shortcomings in the area of white supremacy, citing how Sanders, through his denouncement of reparations, fails to examine the roots of black poverty. Missing the roots is a common problem in most “radical” politics, and it often leads to policies that pacify the effects of white supremacy for a while before ultimately exacerbating them.

Job creation and free higher education aren’t going to magically wipe away white supremacy and create a system that no longer socially, politically and economically oppresses black people for being black. They might help, yes, but eventually, they’ll give way to a system specifically created for oppressing black people, landing us back into the same socioeconomic positions we have always found ourselves in. We can’t rant about inequality without completely analyzing it fully and treating it accordingly.

Another issue that gives me pause in regards to Sanders does not directly come from Sanders himself, but from many of his supporters. Sanders seems to have the type of supporters who want to pressure black people into accepting this man as a savior, someone who’ll completely overhaul our existence and take us to the Promised Land the second he steps foot into office. They mostly base their opinions on him based on his loud proclamations of what should be common sense during debates and his involvement in the Civil Rights Movements nearly four decades ago. They are the type of people who were hostile to those who interrupted Sanders a few months ago, an incident Coates cites in his article. His supporters are the type to post #FeelTheBern all over Facebook without fully analyzing him as a candidate/politician. They are also the type of people to put on a show of fighting for equality but refuse to be corrected when they say/do something anti-Black.

I’m not saying that every white Sanders supporter is like this but you can’t ignore the ones that are. Many of these types of supporters might feel the same desperation and frustration I feel. After all, we’re all looking at the prospective candidates and only seeing one that isn’t unbelievably terrible in some way. But this type of behavior is ultimately going to alienate the audience Sanders seems to want to appeal to the most.

I’m going to vote for Sanders because he’s the only one who doesn’t actively cause me annoyance or anxiety. But it’s a troubling state of affairs when the most “radical” candidate still misses the mark on white supremacy and is falling behind in the polls to a candidate who thinks that changing her logo on Twitter to an image of Rosa Parks sitting on an “H”-shaped bus seat is going to secure her the black vote.

Courtney (she/her, they/their) is an aspiring journalist trying to make a way in the South. She hopes to one day dismantle white supremacy and have a flawless fro while doing so. Follow her on Twitter here.

Courtney Anderson

Writing since January 2016 · 1 story contributed