Even when two white men square off, racial politics can color the outcome

SAN DIEGO - Politics is no stranger to irony. Now that the most diverse presidential primary field in history has withered down to a choice between two old white guys, the fortunes of Democrats rest with voters of color.

Joe Biden has a tight grip on the black vote. Bernie Sanders has scooped up the Latino vote. Both men are likely to split the ballots of working-class whites.

Despite the fact that some whites are afraid that minorities want to get even for past injustices, the opposite appears to be true. Biden has a lot to answer for with black voters on criminal justice, and Sanders has often failed Latinos on immigration.

Yet here we are. Apparently, people of color don't hold grudges -- at least not against Democrats.

Still, no matter how this racial tug-of-war between voters turns out, Democrats are about to get a big helping of karma.

They have it coming. For the last 50 years, Democrats have gotten a free ride due to Republicans' boneheaded missteps on race. They have portrayed their opponents as racists while letting themselves off the hook for not doing a better job of serving minorities.

Now, this year, one way or another, the Democratic nominee will be a white male who grew up in the 1940s -- before the civil rights movement - and has a knack for saying clumsy and insensitive things about race.

That could be Biden. But it could also be Sanders.

It turns out the 77-year-old former vice president -- who failed to defend Clarence Thomas accuser Anita Hill as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, authored the 1994 crime bill that led to the mass incarceration of Latinos and African-Americans, described Barack Obama as "articulate and bright and clean," and gave black people a parenting sermon centered around record players -- hasn't cornered the market on off-color comments about color, race or ethnicity.

The 78-year-old Vermont senator -- who has spent his adult life in the Green Mountain State, which is overwhelmingly white -- recently said a pretty dumb thing about how Biden came to enjoy such strong support from African Americans.

For Sanders, the secret to Biden's success with black voters -- not just on Super Tuesday but also in future primaries in states like Michigan, Ohio, Mississippi and Louisiana, which have large African American populations -- is simple. It's just leftover residue of pride and goodwill toward Obama, who Biden loyally served for 8 years as vice president. As Sanders told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in response to a question about why he wasn't doing better among black voters, "Biden is running with his ties to Obama. And that's working well."

Hard stop. The fact that anyone who isn't black would be presumptuous enough to attempt to "white 'splain" why African Americans vote the way they do is a problem. It's also not a good look to abandon all humility and forget to mention what you've done wrong in failing to attract black support. Nor is it wise to refuse to give your opponent even a modicum of credit for what he may have done right in winning over black voters.

The way Sanders sees it, his dismal performance with African Americans -- both this year and in 2016 -- is not his fault. As you may have noticed, this is how the senator rolls. He takes credit for what goes right, but shifts the blame when something goes wrong.

It's not like Sanders at one point was distancing himself from Obama. It's not like the senator once suggested that a fellow Democrat ought to stage a primary challenge against the first black president - and hinted that he ought to be that "someone."

Even with his occasional flubs, Biden has been on the right side of most racial issues for the nearly 50 years that he has spent in politics.

Meanwhile, in the three decades that Sanders spent in Washington -- first in the House of Representatives, then in the Senate -- he has shown very interest in African Americans, their lives or their concerns.

Black voters have noticed that indifference, and now they're sending Sanders a message. It's the same message that Latinos are sending Biden, for standing idly by as Obama targeted Latino immigrants -- deporting 3 million people, separating families and putting children in cages. The message: We remember.

Say, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people of color do hold grudges after all. They just hold them selectively.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.