2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The "PoC don't support Bernie because they don't know him" claim is actually true [View all]EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)And then he stopped, walked away from the movement, relocated to Vermont and hasn't done anything particularly remarkable on civil rights since.
And, yes, he was white, but he DID have a personal stake in all of that. The civil rights movement wasn't about "rescuing" black people. It was about rescuing this country from itself, something that EVERYONE, regardless of their race should have been committed to doing. He doesn't get extra credit because he was white. He did what any decent person should have been doing. the fact that so few did it is an indictment on those who failed, not a reason to turn those who stepped up into something bigger than they are.
He showed courage and commitment and I give him many props for that. But since then, while he's supported civil rights, he has not done much fighting. And he certainly doesn't get a lifetime vote from all black people because of something he did 50 years ago. It doesn't work that way.