I can understand why that would sound problematic for a number of reasons but i want to give my best argument so please indulge me for a moment if you would.
Going back to why Sanders people in particular are defensive of this kind of thing for a moment(not going to dispute the claims of him not fully thinking about his phrasing before speaking),the claim in question from the reporting is that Sanders believes and claimed that drug incarceration rates are disproportionate because "most people who sell drugs are black", when that is the exact opposite of what he has historically believed for the past 30+ years
Its clearly something that he doesnt think, so the narrative that the guy is a closet racist or bigot is clearly unfounded. Yes he could phrase his wording better, but its clearly being taken out of context to create a narrative that doesnt exist. Does Sanders 'understand' what normal black people go through or other people of color? Not in the least. But then, none of the people in this race or most of Washington understood us or what we go through, even the black politicians, so its a low bar to clear. He's better on it by far than pretty much anyone else, and that's what matters to me.
Its especially terrible coming from many of the same people who try to push the "joe will be joe" narrative when he actually has a HUGE detrimental record with black people and other minorities and an actual history of doubling down on these statements and actions he's done. Or Warren who tries to claim Native American DNA when she has not a care to spare for the actual rights of the people of standing rock even when they are having their rights infringed. Same goes for Mayor Pete, Kamala Harris, and the other candidates.
The narrative is, Sanders is "uniquely bad on race", and that's just wrong.
