I think Bernie Sanders is reminding us how we're connected as a movement, that we need to join together, and that we need to heal this trauma, this sickness that we're in together. We need to find a way to see across the differences in order to get to the solution.

RG: Kenidra, do you feel like people also have a little bit of healthy skepticism where they just don't trust white folks right now and there's a lot of hurt that is possibly a part of that?

KW: Absolutely. I feel like there is a thing of feeling let down by white people.... People, just in general, that I know personally are like 'Oh, how can he help us?’ And I'm just like, 'Wow, you haven't read his plans.’... So I've told them, ‘Do your research.’ I tell them, ‘Oh, he wants to tackle unemployment, he wants to tackle low wages and these student debts and all this other stuff.’ He's a man that's about his word."

RG: [Regarding] this question around healthy skepticism: Is there anything that Sanders could actually be doing better? Like what do we think his rough edges are?

KW: I don't know if y'all saw the video that went viral [from an October 2019 forum in South Carolina] when he was saying to a black boy what he would do if he was pulled over by a cop or something, and then he was just saying that he would abide by — go with what the cop is saying cause he don't want to get shot in the head or something like that. I guess that was kind of rude, I was like, ‘Wow. I don't know.’ Sometimes Bernie is super outspoken, and...it's not a bad thing to be as outspoken as he is, but it's like, what he said during that I was kind of taken aback by.

RG: Right. As if Black people can do anything that will prevent cops from killing us.

That was a moment that I also cringed and was definitely like, ‘We need to push him on his understanding.’ I mean he's a white guy from Vermont, and I think that definitely clouds his experience — like he's a product of his own experience. Isra, any thought on this one, where do you think Bernie Sanders could be doing better?

IH: I think all candidates could be doing a lot better. We can talk about these broad ideas of policy, but we don't know what that's going to look like when implemented. And I think that's something that the everyday American needs to know so they can truly understand what this idea of Medicare for All really is.... There's a really big — a lack of understanding of what things like the Green New Deal or Medicare for all, like [what] any of these policies really mean to the everyday American. Also what implementation looks like....like this idea of money, [of funding] all of these things are really scary to people.

AM: I'll say Bernie lacks a little bit of his understanding of the current moment we are in sometimes. I think he has a very good understanding of the politics, but the social skills are missing, a little. It's understandable, he's...it's kind of what he is.... It's a flaw but also one of his strong suits that he doesn't seem easily swayed by personality.

Yes, he has an understanding of the class but sometimes in his conversation around race, I don't think he uses the moment to really reflect deeply on how race impacts even his ability to be such a radical candidate in this moment. What it would look like for a young black woman to come up talking about socialist principles running for office, would be very different.... But I think he's got a lot better than where he was in 2016.