It is a tragedy when any member of the US military is killed in combat. This is of course true regardless of race. But since Al Sharpton and an MSNBC guest have chosen to racialize and politicize the matter, it's incumbent to set the record straight.
On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough pointed out that Hillary has been much more hawkish and interventionist regarding foreign wars than Sanders. New York Times columnist Anand Giridharadas then said "and the people who die in those coffins by the way have a racial make-up that is much browner and blacker than the rest of the country." Sharpton gave that notion a big amen, saying "there's no doubt about it." Actually, there's a lot of doubt about it. In fact, the statement is false. As eminent military historian Victor Davis Hanson has documented regarding US military deaths, "in almost all cases, the white death ratio approximated or exceeded the percentages of whites in the general population."
The conversation came in the context of Giridharadas' question to Sharpton as to why minorities disproportionately support a system insider like Hillary over Bernie, despite that fact that minorities have been "most disenfranchised by the system."
ANAND GIRIDHARADAS: Reverend, I'll ask you a question: one of the things that fascinates me is that many of the voters in this country who have been most disenfranchised by the system always are supporting an insider-to-the-system candidate disproportionately. How do you explain that dynamic?
AL SHARPTON: Because I think again that many of those voters are dealing with the fact that they have had for the last eight years, you are talking about African-American voters, I assume.
GIRIDHARADAS: And beyond.
SHARPTON: And others. A Barack Obama. So they're defensive about, they don't want to see the things they felt was a big victory for us to be reversed but at the same time we want to move forward. And I think that if you look at Hillary Clinton who did end up working in the Obama administration and has made that statement and you look at a Sanders.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: But if you look at policy issues, she's a step back from Barack Obama. She was almost the most aggressive on a military response in every cabinet meeting. She supported intervention and nation-changing in Iraq. She supported the same in Syria. She supported the tripling of troops in Afghanistan. She was always the most aggressive. She was far more keen to help Wall Street out than Barack Obama.
SHARPTON: That, what you said, should be a Sanders commercial. That's what he ought to be saying.
JOE: Well, he is saying that, but it's not connecting.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: The Clinton campaign is saying that his tone is harsh.
GIRIDHARADAS: And the people who die in those coffins by the way have a racial make up --
SHARPTON: -- absolutely
GIRIDHARADAS: -- that is much browner and blacker than the rest of the country.
SHARPTON: There is no doubt about it.
