San Francisco teacher says Bernie Sanders' mittens epitomized White 'male privilege'

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A San Francisco high school teacher is taking heat for saying that Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., displayed "white privilege" when he attended President Biden's inauguration in a casual coat and mittens and captured the attention of the internet.

"Sen. Sanders is no white supremacist insurrectionist. But he manifests privilege, white privilege, male privilege and class privilege, in ways that my students could see and feel," Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, a former UC Berkeley professor, wrote in an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle.

TEACHER WHO MADE BERNIE SANDERS' MITTENS NOW WORKING WITH VERMONT TEDDY BEAR COMPANY TO MAKE MORE

Social media users found a photo of Sanders, 79, looking cold and grumpy at the inauguration so funny they circulated it for days, making jokes and memes. Seyer-Ochi wrote that she "puzzled and fumed" over this.

Former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) sits in the bleachers on Capitol Hill before Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th US president on Jan. 20, 2021, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. ((Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images))

"We talked about gender and the possible meanings of the attire chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris, Dr. Jill Biden, the Biden grandchildren, Michelle Obama, Amanda Gorman and others. We referenced the female warriors inspiring these women, the colors of their educational degrees and their monochromatic ensembles of pure power," Seyer-Ochi wrote, referring to her students.

"And there, across all of our news and social media feeds, was Bernie: Bernie memes, Bernie sweatshirts, endless love for Bernie. I puzzled and fumed as an individual as I strove to be my best possible teacher," she continued. "I don't know many poor, or working class, or female, or struggling-to-be-taken-seriously folk who would show up at the inauguration of our 46th president dressed like Bernie. Unless those same folk had privilege. Which they don't."

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Seyer-Ochi received a boatload of online criticism for her op-ed.

"Ugh. SJWs are so humorless have to take a stupid, funny meme and turn it into a meta-narrative about white privilege," RealClearPolitics president Tom Bevan wrote on Twitter.

"What a stupid and appalling article: all based on how Bernie dressed. As stupid and gross as it is, it represents a large and growing sector of left-liberal thought," journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote on Twitter.

"Wait so Bernie has now been attacked for being too fancy, and not fancy enough, all while wearing the exact same nondescript winter coat??" The Hill's "Rising" host Krystal Ball wrote on Twitter. 

"Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, in Vermont this is actually dress attire. Leave Vermont and Bernie alone," Lisa Langsdorf of GoodEye PR wrote on Twitter.

Sanders dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, which Biden eventually won.