We have to have a candidate who can inspire at the deepest level the best values and instincts of the American people.

Welcome to Deconstructed, I'm Mandy Husson. I'm excited today and I hope you are too because my guest is someone very special who I've been wanting to interview for a while now.

Not just because he appeared in the Matrix movies. He's one of the most prominent supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders who formally declared his candidacy for President of the United States this past weekend.

He's an anti-racist in his heart. He has a consistency over the years, decade after decade, going to jail in Chicago as a younger brother and he would go to jail again. He and I would go to jail again.

That of course is the voice of the one and only Cornell West, academic, author, activist, socialist and perhaps the original Bernie brother.

So on today's show, a lively discussion with Dr. West on race, inequality, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and the 2020 Democratic presidential race.

For years is a very long time in politics. Back in 2016, Bernie Sanders was an insurgent candidate, an outsider, an underdog with very little money and very little name recognition.

Now in the run up to the 2020 election, he's one of the front runners in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. He's one of the most popular politicians in America.

And to seal the deal, this time round, he's decided to get personal.

I learned a great deal about immigration as a child because my father came from Poland at the age of 17 without a nickel in his pocket without knowing one word of English.

He came to the United States to escape the crushing poverty that existed in his community and to escape widespread anti-Semitism.

And it was a good thing that he came to this country because virtually his entire family was wiped out by Hitler and Nazi barbarism.

What's often lost in the coverage of Bernie Sanders' candidacy, both last time and this time, is that if he wins, he would be the first ever Jewish president of the United States.

In our era of quote unquote identity politics, in our era of rising bigotry and anti-Semitism, surely that matters. Surely that should be some defense against the charge that he's just another old white man.

Against the charge that he has a problem with race.

Does Bernie Sanders have a problem with black voters?

Bernie Sanders struggled with the black vote in the 2016 election.

And this is why Hillary beat him Bernie. Black voters did not show up for Bernie Sanders.

Those voters, those are still the core of the Democratic Party and if Bernie's going to have a problem, that's where it's going to come up.

Some of his critics have even taken to just making things up when it comes to pushing this Bernie is bowed on race narrative.

His former Hillary Clinton campaign staffer, Zelina Maxwell, an MSNBC, commenting on his launch speech.

I clocked it. He did not mention race or gender until 23 minutes into the speech.

...