Uh-oh! Woke San Francisco HS teacher may have kicked a hornet's nest by coming after Bernie Sanders and his fans' 'privilege'

Sarah D | 1:43 PM on February 01, 2021

If you thought Bernie Sanders was immune from woke criticism, looks like you thought wrong:

https://twitter.com/sfc_opinions/status/1356213758826311681

Hoo boy.

lmao the Jewish socialist gets called in for white privilege and class privilege, who could have predicted this https://t.co/qhAmB71B4f

— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) February 1, 2021

San Francisco Unified School District high school teacher Ingrid Seyer-Ochi writes:

We talked about gender and the possible meanings of the attire chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris, Dr. Jill Biden, the Biden grandchildren, Michelle Obama, Amanda Gorman and others. We referenced the female warriors inspiring these women, the colors of their educational degrees and their monochromatic ensembles of pure power.

And there, across all of our news and social media feeds, was Bernie: Bernie memes, Bernie sweatshirts, endless love for Bernie. I puzzled and fumed as an individual as I strove to be my best possible teacher. What did I see? What did I think my students should see? A wealthy, incredibly well-educated and -privileged white man, showing up for perhaps the most important ritual of the decade, in a puffy jacket and huge mittens.

…

“When you see privilege, you know it,” I’d told them weeks before. Yet, when they saw Sen. Bernie Sanders manifesting privilege, when seemingly no one else did, I struggled to explain that disparity. I am beyond puzzled as to why so many are loving the images of Bernie and his gloves. Sweet, yes, the gloves, knit by an educator. So “Bernie.”

Not so sweet? The blindness I see, of so many (Bernie included), to the privileges Bernie represents. I don’t know many poor, or working class, or female, or struggling-to-be-taken-seriously folk who would show up at the inauguration of our 46th president dressed like Bernie. Unless those same folk had privilege. Which they don’t.

There's an extreme minority of people within the progressive movement that hold this view, and we have to disabuse them of the notion that elders wearing winter appropriate clothing is "white privilege." The true show of privilege is wearing thousands of dollars in dress clothes.

— Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa ✶ (@CDRosa) February 1, 2021

No! Don’t disabuse them of that notion. We’re having too much fun!