Ben Jealous: ‘Every part’ of Sanders’s platform helps blacks

Civil rights leader Ben Jealous on Wednesday pushed back against accusations that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders doesn’t focus enough on issues to help black people.

“He has the best racial justice platform of any candidate — but every part of his platform helps African Americans,” Jealous said of Sanders in an op-ed for The Huffington Post.

{mosads}“His infrastructure plan creates and preserves 13 million good jobs. That helps African Americans,” the former president of the NAACP added.

“Providing tuition-free education at public colleges and universities opens the door to opportunity for young people. That helps African Americans. He has a plan to protect and expand Social Security — that helps African Americans.”

Jealous said Sanders’s positions on income inequality and gun violence would be beneficial for blacks as well.

“Bernie is committed to fighting the Wall Street greed that has decimated black and brown communities,” he said.

“There is no question that Bernie Sanders will do more to rein in Wall Street’s greed and fraud, end its destructive behavior and rebuild our communities,” Jealous added.

“Bernie understands that gun violence is about more than just guns. He understands the larger social and economic reality faced by our black and brown young people, who are most likely to shoot each other (just as our unemployed white and Native American working class young people are the most likely to shoot themselves). In other words, Bernie knows that nothing stops a bullet like job.”

Jealous highlighted Sanders’s message of equality and opportunity.

“Above all else, Bernie strives to bring all Americans together with his belief that we are one nation and one community, and the fierce urgency with which he is helping to build a movement for the American dream.”