Class is more important than race . Racism is a tool of classism . Period . Editthe Vermont senator advocated go beyond identity politics , declaring , The working class of this country is being decimated that ' s why Donald Trump won . And what we need now are candidates who stand with those working people , who understand that real median family income has gone down . I believe this is quote what the headline refers to ? I suppose it has never occurred to this writer that the best way to fight institutionalized racism the kind of racism that is an actual problem which every black person faces . is to fight classism ? Corrupt police officers , for example , will be far less likely to harass and assault people of color if they can expect that person to be able to afford to mount a strong legal attack against said officer . Without classism , that is what would happen . Without classism racism , in its vestigial form , is impotent . Should we want to elect someone who will pander to PoC and then work diligently to reinforce class structures ? This simple understanding of the classrace debate eludes so many because it is convenient to them . They don ' t want to question classism , so they don ' t look at the problem of racisms root , because that is classism , and they benefit from it . ButBernie fights racism directly , he is antiracist . He has been champion of antiracism for half a century . He hasn ' t stopped . He has organized and lead and he has marched with the leaders . He has proposed legislation that would disproportionally reduce harms to African American people . He had the most progressive criminal justice reform platform by far . He is like a walking talking inferno of rage against all injustice . So yes it is possible to chew gum fight racism and walk fight classism at the same time and in fact some people like Bernie Sanders even do it very well .