Sanders: America Was Founded on ‘Racist Principles’

Bernie Sanders at Liberty University: America Was Founded On "Racist Principles" (RealClearPolitics)

QUESTION, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY: If you were elected president, what would you do to bring healing and resolution to the issue of racism in our country? We both want to see that go away. What steps would you begin to take if you were our leader in that resolved? 

BERNIE SANDERS: That is an excellent question. I would hope and I believe that every person in this room today understands that it is Unacceptable to judge people, to discriminate against people based on the color of their skin... 

And I would also say that as a nation, the truth is, that a nation in which many ways was created, and I'm sorry to have to say this, from way back, on racist principles, we have, a long way as a nation. 

My guess is that probably not everybody here is an admirer or voted for Barack Obama. But the point is, in 2008, this country took a huge step forward in voting for a candidate based on his ideas and not the color of his skin...

SANDERS: And whether you like Obama or not, and I do, he is a friend of mine and I work with him on many issues, that is a step forward for America. 

But let me also say what everybody here knows, and my thoughts having just returned from South Carolina, we all know to what degree racism remains alive in this country. I cannot understand, I really cannot. I think about it, I try to understand it, how a sick man can walk into a bible study class, discuss the bible, pray with people in the room, and then take out a gun and kill nine of them because the color of their skins were different...

Let us be clear. When you have unarmed African Americans shot by police officers something which has been going on for years, that is also institutional racism and cries out for reform.