Hillary Clinton, seeking to cement her lead among black voters, released statements from the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis on Tuesday criticizing Bernie Sanders for saying white people “don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto.”
The Vermont senator, who has struggled to persuade blacks to support him, made the statement on Sunday during a debate in Flint, Michigan. The CNN moderator Don Lemon asked both Clinton and Sanders to describe their “racial blind spots.”
“When you’re white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto — you don’t know what it’s like to be poor,” Sanders said. “You don’t know what it’s like to be hassled when you walk down the street or you get dragged out of a car.”
The remarks provoked an immediate online backlash from people who pointed out that many whites also live in dilapidated housing and in low-income neighborhoods.
Sanders clarified his statements on Monday in comments to several reporters in Detroit.
“What I meant to say is when you talk about ghettos, traditionally, what you’re talking about is African-American communities,” said Sanders, standing near his campaign’s chartered plane.
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