It will be overshadowed by other moments but I thought Qs about systemic racism & white privilege produced the most revealing exchanges from tonight's #IASen debate. The section starts around 41:30 of this video: 1/

Senator @joniernst repeated her lie about how @GreenfieldIowa supposedly called all Iowa law enforcement officers racist, b/c she has said systemic racism exists in criminal justice.
Then bragged about sitting down to talk w/African-American leaders in Des Moines this summer. 2/

In response to follow-up Q, Ernst clarified that she doesn't believe systemic racism exists. She said "you will find racist individuals in those systems" but she doesn't believe "entire systems of people" are racist.
(Of course that's not what systemic racism means.) 3/

. @GreenfieldIowa refuted Ernst's "misleading" comments, adding,
"Discussing systemic racism does not mean that any one individual is a racist, but rather that we have to take a look at the discrimination across our systems: housing, health care, education, finance" 4/

. @GreenfieldIowa stated clearly that Black and Brown communities have faced systemic racism for generations, and we need to work on ending that, including in policing. She praised the bill #ialegis passed in June: 5/ https://www.bleedingheartland.com/2020/06/12/six-inspiring-speeches-on-iowas-first-step-to-address-police-violence/

The next Q from @MattBreenKTIV4 followed up on quotes about systemic racism from the candidates' first #IASen debate on @IowaPress. This part started around 45:20:
@GreenfieldIowa talked about disparate outcomes in health care as well as policing. 6/

. @joniernst took credit for supporting criminal justice reform, including working with @CoryBooker on bipartisan "ban the box" legislation and Pell grants for people who are incarcerated. 7/

The next question was about this summer's protests, and @joniernst repeated tropes about defunding the police. @GreenfieldIowa has said repeatedly that she doesn't support defunding police. She said in response that she backs reforms to address racism in all of our systems. 8/

Then @brianneDMR asked, "Do you believe that you've ever benefited from white privilege?" Starting around 55:00, @joniernst said it's hard to say--she grew up in a mostly white community--but she was in a racially diverse environment in the military. 9/

. @joniernst said she does believe some kinds of training are important. (Trump has banned certain types of racial sensitivity training.)
In contrast, when asked whether she's benefited from white privilege, @GreenfieldIowa said, "Absolutely, I have" and gave 2 examples. 10/

First, @GreenfieldIowa noted how Social Security helped her get back on her feet as a young widow with a toddler and a baby on the way. "I'm not convinced that that system would have worked for a young, widowed Black woman with a 13-month-old and another one on the way." 11/

Then, @GreenfieldIowa again brought up racially disparate maternal mortality rates. She didn't have those issues but too many Black women do. So we have to look at why that's happening, what the discrimination is, where is the racial bias, & adjust training in health care. 12/

To sum up: @joniernst denied the existence of systemic racism and continued to distort the meaning of the term to stir up animus in her mostly-white audience, even as she bragged about listening to and working with Black people. Disappointing but not surprising. 13/13 #IASen