MINNEAPOLIS -- "I know you're scared to say black, and I know you're scared to say reparations," said Felicia Perry to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
He showed up to meet people who had stood in single-digit cold and shuffled through two metal detectors, the price of Sanders's still-new secret service detail. Around 1,400 tickets had been distributed, and the crowd was diverse, with black activists generally taking up seats nearest Sanders.
But despite a warm reception, Perry was not the only questioner who thought Sanders's class rhetoric too often veered from race.
"It seems like every time you talk about black people, and us getting something for the systematic oppression and exploitation of our people, we have to include every other person of color," said Felicia Perry.
There was more applause. When it died down, Sanders did not change his answer. "You and I may disagree on this," he said. "It's not just black. It is Latino. There are areas of America, in poorer rural America where it's white. So, I believe that in a country that has more income and wealth inequality than any other country, then yes, the time is overdue to invest."
Say black! yelled someone in the crowd. Say black!
"I said black 50 times!" Sanders said. "That's the 51st time... what I want, and what I believe we should do, is to invest most heavily in those communities most in need." He rattled off the unemployment numbers in black communities, and there was no more murmuring.
Minnesota, seen as one of the richest targets for Sanders among the Democrats' March 1 caucus states, is not among the most diverse. But Minneapolis itself is roughly 19 percent African-American, and since 2007 it has had a black congressman, Rep. Keith Ellison, who introduced Sanders at the forum.
"By showing up, he's saying: 'I respect you,'" said Ellison after the forum. "This society doesn't feel they're important. He challenges that by the mere physical act of showing up."
Sanders had agreed to attend after a busload of Minnesota activists trekked to January's Black and Brown Forum in Des Moines. In the meantime, he'd tied the Iowa caucuses and won the New Hampshire primary, picking up media and security staff. But he kept the appointment, and moderator Anthony Newby gathered four activists to sit with Sanders onstage, as equals, asking him questions he was unlikely to be asked on TV.
Multiple attendees remarked on how Sanders had come and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton had not, even though both were due in St. Paul just an hour later for the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party's annual fundraising dinner.
"He earned my vote tonight,," said Lena K. Gardner, 33, a founder of Black Lives Matter in the Twin Cities, as she left with her niece. "It means something that he showed up. It shows that Hilary Clinton doesn't care about Black people that she didn't show up."
More than half a year had passed since Sanders was interrupted by Black Lives Matters protesters in Phoenix, and the senator was now very used to working discussions of criminal justice reform into his overarching message.
"Jobs and education, not jails and incarceration," said Sanders at the start of the event.
No matter what said, there were black audience members who sat quietly, and white audience members who applauded. That gulf was widest when Sanders teed up his support for police reform with a caveat that "a vast majority" of police officers acted in good faith. But there was a standing ovation when Jason Sole, a felon who had gone on to earn a doctorate, asked Sanders how he would restore voting rights to people like him.
"Intrinsically I can feel the Bern, but I can't manifest it," said Sole. "I can't cast a ballot."
@IamJasonSole just asked one of the trillest questions ever. #BlackForumMN pic.twitter.com/pceTFqinN2
— the right one (@heytonetone) February 13, 2016
Sanders answered the question by talking about criminal justice in Sweden, where rehabilitation and not "vengeance" seemed to be the goal.
"There is an unbelievable amount of black men who cannot vote because of felonies," said Sanders.
"I know it's 47,000 in Minnesota," said Sole."
"Just in Minnesota? In Florida, and Texas, it's off the charts. Look, what criminal justice is supposed to be about is that you commit a crime, you're found guilty, you pay a price. I'm not aware that 'paying the price' means taking away your right to participate in a democratic society."
That got one of the night's loudest standing ovations.
"You're a citizen of the United States, correct?" Sanders continued. "In Vermont, felons can vote. It's not only stupid and unfair. Don't be naive and think there's not an ulterior purpose here as well. If large numbers of African-American men can't vote, someone benefits from that. It's part of voter suppression."
Sanders got applause again when a question about "garbage" poisoning black children prompted him to say that he wanted Michigan's governor to resign over the disaster in Flint. He would not propose strictly race-based solutions to problems, but he would readily admit that racism was real.
"Socialist strategies have historically left large swathes of black and native people behind," said Roderick Adams, one of the panelists. "It was true of the New Deal. It was true of the GI Bill. It was especially true of the federal housing bill. Also, it was true of the Affordable Care Act, which was highly racialized."
Sanders took that as another chance to describe what would work better than reparations, but fulfill the same goal.
"You have my word that we will guarantee that when we make a major investment about creating 13 million jobs over the next five years, rebuilding our infrastructure, that money will go into the communities that need it most, to rebuild," said Sanders.
How? shouted some audience members. How? How? How?
That line of inquiry was only stopped by a louder one, as the 79-year-old Native American activist Clyde Bellecourt stood and demanded to speak. And speak. And speak. Over five minutes he took an increasingly restless audience through the occupation of Wounded Knee, the racism of Hollywood, and the broken promises of the federal government. He threatened to "be carried out of the room" if Newby cut him off.
"America is completely retarded when it comes to the struggle of the native people," said Bellecourt, cameras and cellphones clicking around him.
Sanders, who had to sprint to St. Paul for the fundraiser dinner, did not conceal his restlessness. He eventually turned away from Bellecourt, leaning in to talk to his co-panelists, and folding up his notes. He turned back only when Bellecourt got to his question.
"Will you honor the treaties made with native Americans?" he asked.
"The native American people got a terrible deal from the federal government," said Sanders. "I will do everything I can to address that. Absolutely." And he was off to St. Paul.