A high school teacher in San Francisco wrote an op-ed claiming that Senator Bernie Sanders “has a privilege” because he wore his meme-provoking inaugural gown.
Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, a former professor at UC Berkeley, wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that the senator from Vermont’s choice of recycled wool gloves is integrated into her class discussion on American diversity and discrimination.
Initially, on the day of the inauguration, Seyer-Ochi said her class spoke about the deeper meanings of the historical day – including ‘the vulnerability of democracy’ and ‘the power of ritual’ and gender.
Sanders, the teacher said, was not even on their radar until he immediately became an internet sensation about his gloves and brown parka.
“I was amazed and aroused as an individual while wanting to be my best possible teacher. What did I see? What do I think my students should see? Seyer-Ochi wrote.
” A rich, incredibly well-educated and privileged white man who shows up for perhaps the most important ritual of the decade, in an inflated jacket and big gloves. ‘
The senator, she said, “reveals privilege, white privilege, male privilege and class privilege, in ways my students could see and feel.”
Seyer-Ochi said in the open that many people without privilege would not be able to dress like Sanders on such an occasion.
“I do not know many poor people, or working class, or women, or people who are struggling to be taken seriously, who would act like Bernie at the inauguration of our 46th president,” she said.
The op-ed has left many people on social media wondering.
“Bernie therefore represents the terrible privilege of whites and riches because he * read article * did not wear expensive clothes,” wrote one comment on Twitter.
“It’s apparently a privilege to dress comfortably and NOT the privilege of wearing expensive designer clothes while the media talk about ensembles as if it were a red carpet event,” said another Twitter user.
A third person on Twitter wrote: “The only ‘privilege’ I currently see is being able to publish an opinion on bad faith in a newspaper with a pay wall,” one commenter wrote on Twitter.