Everyone is up in arms after the former vice president to the nation’s first black president made a joke at the end of an appearance Friday morning on New York’s famous morning radio show, The Breakfast Club, about how “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump then you ain’t black.”
Biden apologized hours later after the clip immediately went viral. “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” he said in a hastily arranged call with the U.S. Black Chambers. “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”
Look, Biden’s joke was clumsy but his sentiments are on the money. As for the Trump campaign call where Katrina Pierson said that “Joe Biden has a history of saying dehumanizing things when it comes to black Americans” and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) accused him of “negative race-baiting” Don’t even get me started.
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All the racist, dehumanizing, nasty stuff that Trump says on a regular is unconscionable and this is what they are concerned with? They need to have several seats!
Here is the point we should not miss: Yes, of course black people have the right to both be and vote Republican. That’s the beauty of America. But, I think to any objective observer this president’s behavior toward and treatment of black and brown people is appalling. Consider his racist attacks on “the squad” (all elected women of color, two black, one Latino, and one Muslim), and on reporters like Abby Phillips of CNN, Yamiche Alcindor of PBS and April Ryan of Urban Radio. How he once referred to his former aide Omarosa as a “dog.”
Remember how he underplayed the horrific display of white nationalism and racism in Charlottesville by saying there were very fine people on both sides there rather than calling out torch-carrying nazis for what they are: racists.
I could go on and on about the economy that is devastating to black and brown people right now, as well as the COVID-19 death rate that has struck down more than its share of black and brown people all across America while the president talks about his record TV ratings and does nothing to address racial health disparities.
This President performed poorly with black voters in 2016 (getting 8%), and will likely do so again in 2020, though he’s hoping to at least improve into double digits. Trust me, I get it. The GOP has been on a downward spiral with black voters for decades.
I used to be like Shermichael Singleton and other black Republicans who against the odds try to argue that the black community must not put all of our eggs in one basket. On that much, we still agree.
The Democrats have taken the black vote for granted. They have often treated black women, their most loyal base, like an afterthought. But just consider the alternative right now.
Biden has vowed to pick a woman as his vice president, and to finally put a black woman on the Supreme Court.
Trump just this week refused to unveil the portrait of the first black president; you know, the one he spent years suggesting wasn’t really an American, or a Christian. He praised Henry Ford’s good bloodlines.
Yes, black voters deserve a choice—just not in 2020. Donald Trump is a racist. Joe Biden made a bad joke.
Joe Biden remains a trusted and beloved figure in the black community—just ask black South Carolinians, who revived his dying campaign this past February.
There’s only one reasonable choice for black voters this November. His name is Joe Biden.
