Through any objective lens Joe Biden has some problematic views and perceptions regarding race.
For the last four years the common media narrative has been that it is Bernie Sanders who has an African-American voter problem. However, that narrative is disingenuous and misleading. Please contain your shock that the media would propagate a disingenuous narrative. Sanders actually has a favorability rate with black voters under the age of 45. It is the older contingency where his issues lie, which is the case across the racial spectrum, but that is neither here nor there for the purposes of this discussion.
The current Democratic presidential candidate whom actually has the real "black" issue is Joe Biden.
As has been heavily reported Biden has quite an extensive history of holding questionable views on certain racial matters, making (if I am being kind) tone deaf comments regarding black folks and promoting legislation that has been detrimental to the African-American community.
Over his near 50 years in government he has repeatedly used language that sounded like it came out of Mitch McConnell's mouth more than the civil rights advocating liberal he claims he is. For example, when Biden was pushing for the 1994 crime bill, which by the way he authored, he routinely referred black male youths as animals, predatory and often hopeless. In a famous speech on the Senate floor he rhetorically instituted imagery that suggested little white women like his mother were susceptible to these brooding dangerous criminals (who were black).
Biden has often employed condescending statements that are dripping with tropes and implicit racism. During the 2008 presidential election he said about Barack Obama, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Now, I am quite sure some will read that and say, "So, what is wrong with that?" Well, aside from being horribly historically inaccurate it also implies that Obama was "one of the good ones". I understand some people believe that is a compliment. I assure you it is not!
During this 2020 Democratic Primary Biden has repeatedly placed his foot in his mouth. He bragged about his ability to work and be friendly with segregationists back in the day. As if the bragging about befriending virulent racists wasn't bad enough, the "working with" he boasted about was the effort to fight bussing.
At a campaign stop he equated black people with poor people. He said (while discussing struggles of African-Americans) that poor kids are just as talented and bright as white kids.
To be fair I understand what he was attempting to convey. However, it is troubling that in his mind black kids are unilaterally the same as poor kids.
Then there was the last Democratic debate on the campus of Texas Southern, a HBCU. Biden was asked about a comment he made in the 1970s essentially regarding reparations and what responsibility people today have about healing the wounds and repairing the damage from slavery which still affects the country today as well as the racial inequalities in our schools. [And, it does regardless of what fantasyland some rightwingers want to dally in.] Biden said (in the 70s) that he "wasn't responsible for what happened 300 years ago but what his generation has done today".
Here is how Biden responded to the question:
"Look, there's institutional segregation in this
country. And from the time I got involved, I started dealing with that. Red lining, banks, making sure we are in a position where — look, you talk about education. I propose that what we take is those very poor schools, the Title I schools, triple the amount of money we spend from $15 to $45 billion a year.
We have [sic] make sure that every single child does in fact have ... three, four, and five-year-olds go to school, not daycare.
We bring social workers into homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It's not that they don't want to help, they don't know quite what to do.
Play the radio, make sure the television — the, excuse me — make sure you have the record player on at night ... make sure the kids hear words."
Lawd Jesus where do I begin with this hot mess?
He started off fine. He is 100% correct about redlining, institutional racism from the banks and the lack of funding for schools which is swallowed up in systemic racism. It is so engulfed I can't go into it here because it is way too detailed
and a couple of sentences won't do it justice. I suggest watching Contrapoints YouTube video about Baltimore. It explains Baltimore's contemporary issues which can be paralleled with nearly every other innercity and predominantly black and/or brown poor community in this country.
But, then he goes off into some ramble about three, four and five year olds going to school and not daycare. Honestly, I am not quite sure where he was going there.
Then he goes off the rails into implicit racism territory. He essentially questions black folks' ability to raise children and then more or less implies they don't know how to raise children. It was very condescending and Daniel Moynihan-ish. He literally sounded like one of those moderate Democrat from the 1980s that didn't believe black people were descendant from monkeys and of course were deserving of equality but are a "little bit inferior" and in need of a white savior.
He concluded his mind-numbing diatribe saying have the record player on and making sure the kids hear words. Look, I don't know what the "record player" fuckery was about. I can't even pretend I do.
However, I think his meandering about kids hearing words was in reference to some education and child development experts believing the more words children hear the more likely they are to excel and have robust vocabularies. Now, I have no desire to go down that road right now. I will just say I believe there is merit to that.
Is that what Biden was saying? I really don't know.
Regardless, the gist of his comments were troubling. They added to a pattern of Biden's that is less than flattering to people of color. It can be said his comments added to a few narratives, all of whom are problematic for someone wanting to be the Democratic nominee tasked with defeating the most corrupt, amoral bigoted president of the last 100 years.
Hey, the fact is Biden is the frontrunner. He possesses the majority of African-American support. I would argue his position on both fronts is tenuous. I believe as the time for actual voting nears and more people start actually paying attention Biden could be in trouble.
Aside from the fact people are not paying attention now and are so effin apathetic what is troubling me that these gaffes and views aren't seemingly affecting those who are paying attention right now. I guess I understand this obsession with electability, which I believe is actually an obsession with this delusion Trumpsters can be swayed away from Cheeto Jesus and they'll "see the light". That strategy is dangerous, naive and ill-conceived.
I am also aware segments of the Democratic electorate believe Biden's problematic racial views are actually beneficial. What those people don't seem to grasp is such an approach will alienate chunks of their base and voters who stayed home in 2016. For many of them Trump being a wannabe fascist menace isn't enough if they believe they are just voting for Republican light which partially got us into our current mess.
And, I want to be clear. I don't believe Joe Biden is a racist. If he is the nominee, of course, I will support him over that fool in the White House.
However, Biden has some very bothersome cringy racial views. Frankly, that is only a fraction of my issues with him.
Again, if he is the nominee, I'll down a shot of rubbing alcohol and vote for him. But, there are significantly better choices, so let's just go with one of them instead of during the general election enduring Uncle Joe deciding to reminisce about as a kid how he just loved Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben because they were "good role models for [the] blacks".
For the last four years the common media narrative has been that it is Bernie Sanders who has an African-American voter problem. However, that narrative is disingenuous and misleading. Please contain your shock that the media would propagate a disingenuous narrative. Sanders actually has a favorability rate with black voters under the age of 45. It is the older contingency where his issues lie, which is the case across the racial spectrum, but that is neither here nor there for the purposes of this discussion.
The current Democratic presidential candidate whom actually has the real "black" issue is Joe Biden.
As has been heavily reported Biden has quite an extensive history of holding questionable views on certain racial matters, making (if I am being kind) tone deaf comments regarding black folks and promoting legislation that has been detrimental to the African-American community.
Over his near 50 years in government he has repeatedly used language that sounded like it came out of Mitch McConnell's mouth more than the civil rights advocating liberal he claims he is. For example, when Biden was pushing for the 1994 crime bill, which by the way he authored, he routinely referred black male youths as animals, predatory and often hopeless. In a famous speech on the Senate floor he rhetorically instituted imagery that suggested little white women like his mother were susceptible to these brooding dangerous criminals (who were black).
Biden has often employed condescending statements that are dripping with tropes and implicit racism. During the 2008 presidential election he said about Barack Obama, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Now, I am quite sure some will read that and say, "So, what is wrong with that?" Well, aside from being horribly historically inaccurate it also implies that Obama was "one of the good ones". I understand some people believe that is a compliment. I assure you it is not!
During this 2020 Democratic Primary Biden has repeatedly placed his foot in his mouth. He bragged about his ability to work and be friendly with segregationists back in the day. As if the bragging about befriending virulent racists wasn't bad enough, the "working with" he boasted about was the effort to fight bussing.
At a campaign stop he equated black people with poor people. He said (while discussing struggles of African-Americans) that poor kids are just as talented and bright as white kids.
To be fair I understand what he was attempting to convey. However, it is troubling that in his mind black kids are unilaterally the same as poor kids.
Then there was the last Democratic debate on the campus of Texas Southern, a HBCU. Biden was asked about a comment he made in the 1970s essentially regarding reparations and what responsibility people today have about healing the wounds and repairing the damage from slavery which still affects the country today as well as the racial inequalities in our schools. [And, it does regardless of what fantasyland some rightwingers want to dally in.] Biden said (in the 70s) that he "wasn't responsible for what happened 300 years ago but what his generation has done today".
Here is how Biden responded to the question:
"Look, there's institutional segregation in this
country. And from the time I got involved, I started dealing with that. Red lining, banks, making sure we are in a position where — look, you talk about education. I propose that what we take is those very poor schools, the Title I schools, triple the amount of money we spend from $15 to $45 billion a year.
We have [sic] make sure that every single child does in fact have ... three, four, and five-year-olds go to school, not daycare.
We bring social workers into homes and parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It's not that they don't want to help, they don't know quite what to do.
Play the radio, make sure the television — the, excuse me — make sure you have the record player on at night ... make sure the kids hear words."
Lawd Jesus where do I begin with this hot mess?
He started off fine. He is 100% correct about redlining, institutional racism from the banks and the lack of funding for schools which is swallowed up in systemic racism. It is so engulfed I can't go into it here because it is way too detailed
and a couple of sentences won't do it justice. I suggest watching Contrapoints YouTube video about Baltimore. It explains Baltimore's contemporary issues which can be paralleled with nearly every other innercity and predominantly black and/or brown poor community in this country.
But, then he goes off into some ramble about three, four and five year olds going to school and not daycare. Honestly, I am not quite sure where he was going there.
Then he goes off the rails into implicit racism territory. He essentially questions black folks' ability to raise children and then more or less implies they don't know how to raise children. It was very condescending and Daniel Moynihan-ish. He literally sounded like one of those moderate Democrat from the 1980s that didn't believe black people were descendant from monkeys and of course were deserving of equality but are a "little bit inferior" and in need of a white savior.
He concluded his mind-numbing diatribe saying have the record player on and making sure the kids hear words. Look, I don't know what the "record player" fuckery was about. I can't even pretend I do.
However, I think his meandering about kids hearing words was in reference to some education and child development experts believing the more words children hear the more likely they are to excel and have robust vocabularies. Now, I have no desire to go down that road right now. I will just say I believe there is merit to that.
Is that what Biden was saying? I really don't know.
Regardless, the gist of his comments were troubling. They added to a pattern of Biden's that is less than flattering to people of color. It can be said his comments added to a few narratives, all of whom are problematic for someone wanting to be the Democratic nominee tasked with defeating the most corrupt, amoral bigoted president of the last 100 years.
Hey, the fact is Biden is the frontrunner. He possesses the majority of African-American support. I would argue his position on both fronts is tenuous. I believe as the time for actual voting nears and more people start actually paying attention Biden could be in trouble.
Aside from the fact people are not paying attention now and are so effin apathetic what is troubling me that these gaffes and views aren't seemingly affecting those who are paying attention right now. I guess I understand this obsession with electability, which I believe is actually an obsession with this delusion Trumpsters can be swayed away from Cheeto Jesus and they'll "see the light". That strategy is dangerous, naive and ill-conceived.
I am also aware segments of the Democratic electorate believe Biden's problematic racial views are actually beneficial. What those people don't seem to grasp is such an approach will alienate chunks of their base and voters who stayed home in 2016. For many of them Trump being a wannabe fascist menace isn't enough if they believe they are just voting for Republican light which partially got us into our current mess.
And, I want to be clear. I don't believe Joe Biden is a racist. If he is the nominee, of course, I will support him over that fool in the White House.
However, Biden has some very bothersome cringy racial views. Frankly, that is only a fraction of my issues with him.
Again, if he is the nominee, I'll down a shot of rubbing alcohol and vote for him. But, there are significantly better choices, so let's just go with one of them instead of during the general election enduring Uncle Joe deciding to reminisce about as a kid how he just loved Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben because they were "good role models for [the] blacks".
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