I might reframe this and say that eliminating racial hierarchy would help us go a lot further towards mitigating capitalist inequality than would be possible otherwise, and that this is a big reason why we see so many billionaire douchebags pushing/ supporting white nationalist causes.
I think that Bernie understood this and that he decided to crack one nut at a time and went with the one that, while likely to be the least effective in the long run, would be likely to help him keep the most votes in the short run.
Of course it would be better if he could have won by addressing race head on first, instead of a more general assessment of economic inequality, but he made the calculation that he'd win fewer votes that way. Maybe he was right and maybe he was wrong...
... but I think he was the closest thing we've seen in a long time to someone winning a lot of political power in spite of being motivated by things that are, on balance, not terrible.
