When Judy Woodruff asked Bernie Sanders if "race relations would be better under a Sanders presidency than they've been," the Vermont senator replied, "Absolutely."
Then he went on to opine how his anti-greed platform, once implemented, would produce jobs, education, less wealth inequality and more minority opportunities. He shared a vision of a rising tide lifting all boats, including the colored ones.
And he completely avoided the elephant in the room.
I guess I was surprised because Bernie Sanders usually lays it all out on the table. He doesn't avoid inconvenient truths about anything; not election laws, tax reform, corporate and financial fraud, trade agreements, health care as a right of citizenship, the politicization of our courts and common sense foreign policies.
But he didn't speak the truth at the debate in Milwaukee.
Bernie should have said the election of an African-American President roused the racists in America to coalesce, organize and act with resentment and violence. That’s why he or Hilary will do better.
On the night of his inauguration Republian leaders gathered privately to pledge a strategy of scorched earth obstruction to any and all of the new President's initiatives, regardless of the country's welfare. They have not strayed.
Yes, they conspired to commit treason because the newly elected President was a Democrat. But they also did it because he was a black Democrat named Barrack Hussein Obama. That's what their base wanted. They were insulted and filled with hatred and fear.
Patriot and Militia groups more than tripled in number in his first year in office, before he'd even gotten his presidential feet wet. They more than doubled by the end of 2014. His election set up an unprecedented propaganda campaign that simply would not have been created if he wasn't black.
Think of the racist memes, the photoshopped photos and images, the ignorant jokes and unprecedented right wing media crusades that began in 2007 and continue today. A black muslim from Kenya wants to take your guns, adopt Sharia law, eliminate jobs, kill the coal and oil industries, kill Christmas and turn America into a communist country. Oh, and he wants to be king, too.
Anyone who thought race relations would improve with our first black president doesn't know human behavior or American history.
We were formed as a racist nation. The slavery of blacks was legal and accepted from 1619 through 1865, firmly establishing white supremacy as the American way of life. Indentured servitude and low wages built these United States. It's in our DNA.
One black man, elected to the highest office of the land during a time when discrimination and prejudice were still proudly practiced and defended by far too many, wasn't going to improve anything.
He had the deck stacked against him from the day he won the nomination.
And that's why Obama couldn't improve relations between the shrinking white electorate and the scary negros, thugs and other minorities.
To the contrary, his years as the world's most powerful nation's Chief Executive have stirred the melting pot.
On the plus side his tenure has exposed our society's shameful underbelly, especially concerning criminal justice, poverty, unemployment, health care, education and abortions/women's health re: black America.
On the negative side the racist masses have been marshalled. They've been worked into a frenzy of fear and hatred and won't back down in their quest to 'take back America.'
When the black man's out of the White House maybe the fury will subside, at least a little.
But chances are equality, progress and peace among all races will remain a difficult, generational journey dependent on old, outdated concepts dying off along with the racists who embrace them.