Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) promised to do everything in his power to combat racial injustice and inequity during a televised CNN town hall on Monday night, seeking to quiet criticism that his focus on class comes at the expense of fighting racism.

In one of the final questions of the evening, Noel Isama, a public policy analyst in the live Washington audience, asked Sanders what he would do to address the “deep sense of mistrust” of him by some within the African-American community.

Isama said that some African-Americans think Sanders did not do enough to support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 and thereby “contributed” to President Donald Trump’s election. He also said that some people feel Sanders is “at times racially insensitive” and, because of his “background,” doesn’t “reflect their experience.”

Sanders defended his record of support for Clinton, noting that he held upwards of 35 campaign rallies on her behalf.

Addressing the second point, he observed that he won a majority of young African-American votes in the 2016 primary ― an assertion supported by exit polling ― and that he currently enjoys high popularity among black voters.

Then Sanders delivered what may be his most articulate and impassioned denunciation of systemic racial inequality in an off-the-cuff setting.

He identified racial disparities as features of American life that cannot be explained purely through the same economic forces that apply to the entire population.

“Maybe I haven’t been as strong on this issue as I should be,” he conceded, in an apparent reference to his rhetoric. “I talk about the fact that we have a nation of massive inequality ― and I believe that. I think that’s the most important issue we can talk about. But within that inequality, we have another inequality, and that is racial disparity.”

He enumerated various ways in which racial inequities persist at all levels of the American economy, including the massive wealth disparity between black and white families, black women’s higher infant mortality rate and the difficulty that some black businesspeople have in obtaining loans.

“I will work as hard as I can, No. 1, to have a Cabinet that reflects what America is, and No. 2, to do everything that I can in every way to end all forms of racism in this country,” he concluded.

As if to test his commitment to that answer, the next questioner, nonprofit worker Chioma Iwuoha, asked Sanders whether he supported reparations for the descendants of black slaves in the United States.

Without addressing the question directly, Sanders said he supported Democratic House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn’s “10-20-30” legislation ensuring that a disproportionate share of federal redevelopment funds go to high-poverty communities, including many urban and rural black communities.

“We’re going to do everything we can to put resources into distressed communities and improve lives for those people who have been hurt from the legacy of slavery,” he said.

CNN host Wolf Blitzer pressed Sanders, who declared his opposition to reparations in the 2016 election cycle, to clarify his stance on reparations, which are traditionally understood as direct payments or others forms of financial redress to descendants of slaves.

During an extended back and forth with Sanders, Blitzer argued that Democratic presidential rivals Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro professed their support for the policy.

Sanders shot back: “What does that mean?”

Blitzer insisted that they were clear about the matter, but in fact, neither has specified their exact intention.

In an interview on MSNBC earlier Monday, Castro stepped closer to backing the conventional understanding of reparations, arguing that if we compensate those whose property we take, we should certainly “consider” compensating the descendants of slaves in a similar form.

The CNN host read Warren’s statement to The Washington Post to Sanders, in which she said there needed to be “systemic, structural changes” to aid black families disadvantaged by slavery and generations of discrimination. Sanders responded that he agreed with Warren.

But when Blitzer pressed Sanders on whether that meant reparations, Sanders repeated himself.

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