Bernie Sanders had a very intense exchange about reparations

Bernie Sanders had an intense encounter about the issue of reparations during a forum aimed at black voters in Minneapolis on Friday.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s stance on reparations has become a repeated flashpoint for him ever since he expressed his opposition in an interview with Fusion.

It came up again during Friday’s forum when a small business owner named Felicia Perry pressed Sanders on why his economic pledges weren’t more specifically targeted towards black people.

“I know you’re scared to say ‘black’, I know you’re scared to say ‘reparations,'” she said. “But it seems like every time we try to talk about black people and us getting something for the systematic reparations and the exploitation of our people we have to include every other person of color, so today can we please talk about specifically black people and reparations?”

Sanders stuck to his guns.

“What I just indicated in my view is that when you have, and you and I may have disagreements about this, because it’s not just black, it is Latino, there are areas of America, in poor rural areas, where it’s white,” he said. “So I believe that in a country which has more income and wealth inequality than any other country, then yeah, the time is long overdue to start investing in poor [communities].”

A bit later, someone shouted, “say black!”

“I’ve said ‘black’ 50 times,” Sanders shot back. “That was the 51st time. But this is a national issue.”