I recently came across an article in The Hill, a political newspaper, in which Bernie Sanders conveyed that nothing was going to come in between himself and his presidential campaign. One commenter replied, “Really? Not even Hitler?”
Aside from the inherent inappropriateness of referencing Hitler, those words are particularly insulting when one understands who Sanders is. Sanders is Jewish and the grandson of a Holocaust survivor.
Aside from becoming victim to anti-Semitic attacks from various Internet commenters, Sanders has also fallen victim to anti-Semitism from journalists. National Public Radio host Diane Rehm said Sanders has a dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship — an untrue statement. She claims she based that assumption off of a secret “list” of U.S. policymakers with Israeli citizenship.
Assuming that Jewish lawmakers, who make up a majority of the “list,” cannot fully support the U.S. and must somehow be working for Israel is anti-Semitic. This implies that people’s ethnicity or religion causes them to automatically prioritize those sentiments over American interests. Yet, this same judgement is not something that white, Christian candidates face. Donald Trump is the son of a Scottish immigrant, yet no one is asking him whether he holds a Scottish dual citizenship.
Indeed, racist statements and beliefs have been focused on candidates in recent elections. When looking through our history of candidates, and especially winning candidates, most have been white, Christian males of affluent background. Only very recently have candidates who break those molds moved to the forefront of political elections. It was only in 2008 when the U.S. elected its first president of a non-white race: President Barack Obama.
After his election, many questioned whether Obama was actually an American citizen, and many used racial slurs against him. In fact, there was a point in time when typing in a racial slur on Google Maps would direct you to the White House. Even today, many continue to question Obama’s citizenship. In a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, only 29 percent of Republicans polled thought Obama was born in the U.S. However, 40 percent thought Ted Cruz was born in the U.S.—even though he was born in Canada.
The responses to these diverse candidates are markers of biases in American society. In the 2014 National Demographic Survey of American Jewish College Students, 54 percent of Jewish respondents had experienced some form of anti-Semitism in college. The survey also reported a higher rate of 18-29-year-olds who had been called an anti-Jewish slur in the past year than those 65 or older. Biases against African-Americans and Hispanics are also prominent. In an Associated Press survey released in 2012, the percentages of people openly admitting to disliking African-Americans and Hispanics increased slightly between the 2010 and 2012 polling.
The rise of racially and ethnically diverse candidates has given racists and anti-Semites figureheads to mock and abuse. The amount of “birthers” who believe Obama is not a citizen as well as the creation of secret “lists” concerning Israeli citizens in Congress are both part of a larger, racially biased society. The racist attacks Obama and Sanders have faced, and will face, are not just isolated incidents from isolated people. They are part of a culture that still does not equally value those who do not fit the expected mold of a true “American.”
