Racism, economic inequity parallel issues in US: Democratic candidate

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders says racism is a problem parallel to income inequality in the US after he was criticized for focusing only on economic issues.

"We have to address both" institutional racism and economic inequality to combat poverty in the United States, Sanders said.

"We have to end institutional racism, but we have to deal with the reality that 50 percent of young black kids are unemployed, that we have massive poverty in America, that we have an unsustainable level of income and wealth inequality," he said on Sunday.

"Those are issues that do have to be dealt with, and just at the same time as we deal with institutional racism."

He also touched on the issue of police brutality by mentioning the case of 28-year-old African-American woman, Sandra Bland, who died earlier this month in a Texas prison cell days after she was violently arrested for a minor traffic offense.

“When an African-American woman gets yanked out of her car, when that happens -- when we all know that would not have happened to a middle class white woman, we know that we need some serious change in criminal justice in this country," Sanders said.

A police dashboard video released last week shows how a routine traffic stop escalated into a verbal and physical confrontation between Bland and Texas State Trooper Brian Encinia.

The video shows the officer threatening Bland with a taser before arresting her. “I will light you up,” the trooper said, pointing the stun gun at her.

"Police officers deserve a lot of support. But one thing we've got to do is make sure our police departments that are part of the community are not seen as oppressors,” Sanders added.

He also opposed some gun control measures backed by his party and defended his record on the issue, saying that the country needs to find "common ground" on firearm legislation.

“Nobody should have a gun who has a criminal background, was involved in domestic abuse situations. People should not have guns who are going to hurt other people, who are unstable," he said.

"We need to make sure that certain types of guns used to kill people, exclusively, not for hunting, should not be sold in the United States of America," Sanders added.

According to a new report, gun production in the United States has more than doubled under the Barack Obama administration.

The report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives comes as Obama has tried to expand background checks and impose new restrictions on guns following massive shootings like the ones in Charleston, South Carolina, and in an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

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