The topics of racism and police brutality are such dire issues in the U.S. that many citizens, especially African Americans, are looking to see if current presidential hopefuls are taking the issue seriously. This is why a group of protesters confronted Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at Saturday’s Netroots Nation conference in Phoenix.
The protesters chanted “say her name,” referencing Black women who have died after encounters with the police. The phase has been used heavily since a 28-year-old Black woman, Sandra Bland, was found dead in a Texas jail cell after a minor traffic stop.
Sanders reportedly refused to address the defiant group and opted to change subjects and talk over them.
Roderick Morrow, host of “The Black Guy Who Tips” podcast, saw a video of the spectacle and tweeted his displeasure in the way Sanders dealt with the situation. Morrow soon began receiving angry messages from Sanders’ supporters, who told him that the 73-year-old candidate has been a staunch defender of civil rights for the majority of his life.
“They were telling me things like, ‘He was protesting for civil rights before you were born!’ They were saying I should just be thankful that he is here for us. It was almost like they were scolding me, saying that Bernie Sanders is Blacker than me. So, I just took that to the extreme, and made a joke,” Morrow said, according to Los Angeles Times.
Morrow then created #BernieSoBlack, and the rest is Black Twitter history. Check out the best of the hashtags below.
