Bernie Sanders speaks at an African-American forum in Minneapolis Friday. | AP Photo Sanders criticism grows pointed at black community forum

MINNEAPOLIS – A warm, welcoming African-American crowd grew increasingly frustrated with Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday evening, complaining that he’s too scared to talk about specifically black issues.

Sanders was here for “A Community Forum on Black America,” introduced by the local congressman, Rep. Keith Ellison, one of Sanders' only two endorsers in the House, But unlike many of the packed rallies that have greeted Sanders in other parts of the country, neither the folding chairs nor the bleachers in the gym here at Patrick Henry High School were full.


And the crowd and the panel grew lukewarm on Sanders, saying his focus on economic inequality looks past the entrenched problems they face as African-Americans.

Questions from a panel and the crowd drilled down on felon voting rights -- which Sanders said he strongly supported restoring -- but turned to environmental racism and reparations for slavery, with demands for more exact answers about actions the candidate for the Democratic nomination would take if he was elected president.

The tension quickly rose over his 40-minute appearance, with moderator Anthony Newby repeatedly calling for “specific redress.”

“I know you’re scared to say ‘black,’ I know you’re scared to say ‘reparations,’” said Felicia Perry, a local entrepreneur and artist on the stage. “Can’t you please specifically talk about black people?”

Sanders, who started off the forum running through his stump speech touching on “systemic racism,” unfair incarceration and education inequality, responded sharply to the charge.

“I said ‘black’ 50 times,” he said. “That’s the 51st time.”

But, Sanders said, the issues at hand are more about economics than race.

“It’s not just black,” he said. “It’s Latino. In some rural areas, it is white.”

Sanders wasn’t the only one in the room who drew complaints. Just before he left, he took a question from Clyde Bellecourt, a 79-year-old Native American activist who refused to give up the microphone as he ticked through centuries of injustice that he said needed to be addressed, too.

"This is a black forum,” Newby said, trying to cut Bellecourt off before Sanders quickly acknowledged Native Americans’ difficult history, and headed for the door to his next event to the tune of David Bowie’s “Starman.”