A high school teacher in San Francisco wrote an op-ed claiming that Senator Bernie Sanders “shows privilege” for wearing his meme-inducing inauguration outfit.
Ingrid Seyer-Ochi, a former UC Berkeley professor, wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Vermont senator’s choice of recycled wool mitts was integrated into her class discussion of American diversity and discrimination.
Initially, on the inauguration day, Seyer-Ochi said her class spoke about the deeper meanings of the historic day – including “the fragility of democracy” and “the power of ritual” and gender.
Sanders, the teacher said, wasn’t even on their radar until he instantly became an Internet sensation about his mittens and brown parka.
“I was amazed and shocked as an individual as I strived to be my best teacher possible. What have I seen? What do I think my students should see? Seyer-Ochi wrote.
“A wealthy, incredibly educated and privileged white man, who shows up for perhaps the most important ritual of the decade, in a puffy coat and enormous mittens.”
The senator, she said, “shows privilege, white privilege, male privilege, and class privilege, in ways my students could see and feel.”
Seyer-Ochi said in the op-ed that many people without privileges wouldn’t be able to dress like Sanders did on such an occasion.
“I don’t know many poor, working class, women or people struggling to be taken seriously who would show up at the inauguration of our 46th president dressed like Bernie,” she said.
The opinion piece left many people scratching their heads on social media.
“So Bernie represents the terrible privilege of the white and wealthy for * reading article * not wearing expensive clothes,” a commenter wrote on Twitter.
“Apparently it is a privilege to dress comfortably and NOT the privilege to wear expensive designer clothes while the media talks about ensembles as if it were a red carpet event,” said another Twitter user.
A third person on Twitter wrote, “The only ‘privilege’ I see now is that I can publish an opinion piece in bad faith in a paywall newspaper,” wrote a commenter on Twitter.