San Francisco Chronicle Feb. 2, 2021 (SFChronicle.com)
Regarding “Students get a lesson in subtle white privilege” (Open Forum, Jan. 30): I disagree with Ingrid Seyer-Ochi’s lesson about Sen. Bernie Sanders being an example of white privilege. Sanders did not dress in his finest outfit as the other elites on stage, instead he dressed with his mittens like most of the people in the audience dressed for these events. Sanders is cold and a lot older. How does that manifest privilege?
Sanders has spent some 60 years fighting against white privilege for the benefit the less privileged. As a high school student, he campaigned for aid for Korean orphans and organized fundraising events. He protested police brutality in the early 1960s. He abhorred the student housing segregation policies of the University of Chicago and worked on a successful campaign that ended 50 years of student segregation.
He then went after segregation of Chicago’s public school system, which lead to him being arrested during a demonstration. Bernie was active in the early civil rights era and marched on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr.
The depth of his involvement with minority communities is further demonstrated by the early support he got from Jessie Jackson for several of his early political campaigns. He is still going nonstop. I only wish he had a matching knitted cap on his head.More for you
John Radogno, Rohnert Park
Smart to dress warmly
The author feels that Sen. Bernie Sanders was underdressed at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, and that his attire was an expression of white privilege.
On the contrary, dressing warmly for an outdoor occasion in mid-January Washington, D.C., displays a refreshing practicality and lack of pretensions. Perhaps those who demand adherence to a dress code of expensive or expensive-appearing business suits or of luxurious designer dresses should not be too self-righteous in their condemnation of a status quo.
Patrick Rooney, Santa Cruz
Not a valid example
I am completely baffled by the Open Forum essay by Ingrid Seyer-Ochi. Applying my inquiry skills, I fail to see why Sen. Bernie Sanders was the target of her piece as an illustration of white privilege. He is an older man, sitting outside in freezing weather in the Capitol, hence the parka and mittens. It’s possible that he was sitting alone because he wasn’t invited to sit with others on the platform.
He has spent his entire life fighting white supremacy and privilege, as demonstrated by his arrest for fighting against segregated housing while a college student in Chicago. At this very moment, he is fighting for working families and those unfairly suffering from this pandemic due to no fault of their own.
All ethnicities are included. He is advocating for emergency health care coverage, relief checks and paid sick leave, among many other helpful provisions. The subtle white privilege must be so obscure as to be nonexistent. We all must fight white supremacy, however Sanders at the inauguration is not a valid example of the deeply rooted struggle.
Adina Haun, San Francisco
©2021 Hearst
