“[G]et away with it?”
He didn’t start smashing stuff and declaring that he was robbed because he won the primary, not Joe Biden.
He wore a gray coat (much like the dude sitting next to him – see my post above), not a black coat.
Holy crap, people (starting with the author of the article condemning Bernie’s attire) are making an entire Himalayan mountain range out of a molehill here.
I suppose it depends on the black person. Sanders benefits here not just from being white but from a lifetime of politics and a couple presidential runs and being a easily recognized figure as a result. He wasn’t some random old white guy squatting on the stairs. You’d be closer to ask what if James Clyburn or the late Elijah Cummings or John Lewis had showed up in a parka although none of them still had the public recognition Sanders has after a couple well publicized presidential campaigns.
A black person from Vermont who got invited to sit near the heart of the inauguration would be likely to think very hard about what would be considered appropriate to wear and what people who saw em would think of it. Indeed, even to get to the point of being in a position to get that invitation would have spent a lifetime thinking about what people (especially although not exclusively white people) might view these things.
That Bernie Sanders can either avoid thinking about it or dismissing any such considerations is absolutely a factor of white male privilege.
No one is saying its a big deal (except perhaps the original opinion piece) but pointing out that it is indeed an example of privilege. One of the things we are supposed to be doing is becoming aware of when privilege is in play. And instead of saying “yep” - a bunch of us are busy saying “no way!” or “it isn’t a big deal.”
Count me as one of them.
In this instance, to call out Senator Sanders’ choice of outerwear as an example of white privilege seems baseless. It really does.
Also, gotta say, I don’t think Sanders wore anything inappropriate. As I pointed out above, he is clearly wearing a suit, a perfectly appropriate suit, standard male business attire, just like most of the men there.
All the clutching of pearls seems to be over the fact that his coat is light gray, not dark gray or black, and he’s wearing mittens.
And the mittens have been a Sanders trademark for a while now. They were made by a Vermont elementary school teacher out of repurposed old sweaters and recycled plastic bottles and stuff like that. He wore them all the time while campaigning.
And there I disagree with you. There are ritual occasions in society were dressing for the occasion is part of the ritual. Inaugurating a president is an important thing - dressing like its an important thing adds gravitas and legitimacy. It has to do with the importance of ritual to societies. I think that when you start breaking those traditions, you’ll end up breaking something important.
We could have the President sworn in at noon in his jammies and bunny slippers with a couple of witnesses, in Blair House…we’d lose something important.
That’s exactly the sort of fashion policing Bernie was protesting against. Enforcing norms by invalidating other choices is disrespectful.
That’s fine. Your right to do so. It’s mine to say “she has a point.” Its even mine to make this into a huge deal, which it isn’t. But I do think pointing out these little things brings awareness the next time someone criticizes a First Lady for wearing a sleeveless dress or a Black President wearing a tan suit.
More like just “meh”. If someone is worried about teaching about white privilege, this is exactly the wrong event to waste time and energy on. No one who isn’t already converted is going to walk away thinking “Wow, white privilege is really something to have awareness of if a white senior citizen is allowed to wear mittens like that…”
Its also disrespectful to come to the inauguration of the President of the United States wearing your mittens, unless you are not yet in middle school. Personally, to me, as I said before, I think the ritual of this thing is important, and dress is part of the ritual.
Then why are you here? If it isn’t something you want to waste time on, no one is making you spend time here.
This is a good point.
I can almost hear Tucker Carlson ranting about this on his show, shouting that this just proves that the libs hate white people or whatever bullshit he makes up, and look at this San Francisco radical being offended.
Why hand it to him? This whole thing is silly.
What do you think about the man sitting to Sanders’ right (see pics above), wearing a gray coat and cowboy boots?
FFS are you just looking for things to complain about?
I feel like I’ve just stepped into an episode of Larry David’s new show, Bern Your Enthusiasm. An excerpt:
“What, they’re just mittens. I like warm hands, the are mittens to keep my hands warm.”
“They’re not ‘inauguration mittens’. If you’re not going to go bare handed, you have to wear dress mittens!”
“They make ‘dress mittens’? Who knew? Do I get them at Brooks Brothers?”
Stranger
Bernie Sanders’ White Privilege is an utterly fabulous band name.
I can envision them belting out classic tunes like this one.
For that matter, I never knew there was such as thing as “formal wear blankets”.
I think she has a point, but I think she has a limited number of opportunities to make that point to an audience that might be willing to listen, and I think she wasted one of those opportunities by critiquing someone who’s well-known for his occasionally disheveled appearance.
Sanders had the privilege of dressing ridiculously for a very important event, and having everyone be amused at how adorable it all was. He played the “I’m an old man who doesn’t care what anyone thinks” card and we were all thrilled.
Is it an example of White Privilege? Male Privilege? Political Heavyweight Privilege? I couldn’t say, but it is undeniable that there are others who get routinely criticized for their dress.
I don’t know… he was clearly wearing a suit underneath which is appropriate dress for the occasion.
Personally, I think the confounding thing here is that he’s 79 years old, which makes it a different matter than if he was 29. He’s not some 65 year old retiree, he’s positively ancient. So I tend to cut him some slack in terms of winter clothing.
That said, I see where Seyer-Ochi might be coming from, although I think she chose a poor example to illustrate it. She’d have done better to contrast the attention paid to female and/or ethnic legislators’ clothing choices to the utter indifference paid to male and/or white legislator’s choices in suits. I mean, I bet nobody paid any attention whatsoever to what suits Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff wore during the first impeachment trial, but people actually noticed that Nancy Pelosi wore the same outfit for both impeachments. Or about what significance there was to many women wearing purple- I haven’t heard a conclusive answer whether it was suffragette purple, a blend of red & blue as a call for unity, or something else entirely. But people paid attention. Nobody could tell you what color Chuck Schumer’s tie was though without digging up a photo on an article about something else.