Democrats have a Biden problem
By: W. Island
Tags: Politics, Black Women, Racism

Remembering Joe Biden’s History

In case you haven’t been keeping track, Democrats have 20+ people running to be president. 20+. And Joe Biden is the front runner. That’s right. After the #MeToo movement, after the March on Washington, the Black Lives Matter movement, and a multitude of other movements focusing on empowering women and minorities, the Democrat front runner is a 76-year-old White guy who lost two previous runs for the presidency.

And let me just say now, I like Joe Biden. We are members of the group of parents who have lost a child to cancer. My heart goes out to him every time he talks about his son. He seems to be a good father and husband. And as far as I could tell, he was a good Vice President during the Obama years. But there was a reason that Biden lost the primaries twice already. And the Democrats are fooling themselves by not acknowledging that Biden has baggage; lots and lots of baggage; heavy, break the scale at the airport baggage.

First, Biden is too touchy feely. Despite numerous people calling him out for inappropriately invading the spaces of people especially women and girls, Biden won’t or can’t stop. Just last month at the American Federation of Teachers’ town hall in Houston, Biden stood behind a little girl and placed his hands on her shoulder after making this cringe worthy comment, “I’ll bet you’re as bright as you are good-looking”. And sure there are people who are willing to overlook another inappropriate invasion of personal space by Biden as ‘Joe being Joe’ but that’s the problem. Biden should know by now that this is inappropriate but he does it anyway. And trust me, if this was Trump saying something creepy like that to a little girl, there is no way it would be so easily dismissed. So why are Dems willing to overlook it now?

This brings me to my second problem, Anita Hill. Biden gave an “apology” to Anita Hill and it was weak. I get that during the time of the Clarence Thomas hearings, women being sexually harassed at the workplace was as common occurrence as bad coffee in the break room. I’m in my 50s and every woman I know was sexually harassed on the job during her 20s. Every woman. But we know better now. By we, I mean most people except Joe Biden. He could have come out full throttle and apologize for nearly destroying Anita Hill’s career and allowing Clarence Thomas to replace Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court. Thomas sitting in Marshall’s seat would be like replacing your iphone with two cups and a string. There hasn’t been a civil rights bill that Thomas hasn’t voted against. If republicans put forth a bill to bring back slavery, I’m convinced Thomas would vote ‘Yea’ as long as he was assured he wouldn’t have to suffer. Thomas admitted he was a beneficiary of Affirmative Action while he voted against it. That’s not just climbing up then kicking the ladder down behind you. That’s climbing up, kicking the ladder, and spraying the people below with a water hose.

Biden should acknowledge his role in the hearings with more than just his tepid non-apology. Anita Hill said it best when asked about Biden’s response “I cannot be satisfied by simply saying, ‘I’m sorry for what happened to you. I will be satisfied when I know there is real change and real accountability and real purpose.”

And that brings me to the last major problem with Biden. He is tone deaf on racial issues. I always thought Biden was an ally to Black folks. After all, he was the happy sidekick to the first Black president. He couldn’t be dismissive of racial issues since he had a first-hand view of the racism that was directed at Barack and Michelle Obama for 8 years, right? Wrong! Biden has made some horrific comments about Black folks. Horrific. Like Bernie Sanders saying guns in Vermont are not the same as guns in Chicago or Trump saying African countries are shitholes. And frankly, I don’t know how anyone can get past some of the things Biden has said. Like this quote explaining why schools in Iowa are performing better than schools in Washington, DC:

“There’s less than one percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than four of five percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you’re dealing with.

When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there’s no books, where the mother from the time they’re born doesn’t talk to them — as opposed to the mother in Iowa who’s sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom…”

When I first read this quote, I screamed out loud. I was shook. Frankly, I still have a hard time believing that Joe Biden said this in 2007, in a Washington Post interview, during his presidential campaign. Biden did try to clarify this remark by saying it wasn’t a race based distinction but a social economic one. But who is he trying to fool. If it wasn’t race based, why bring up mothers in Iowa instead of mothers in Montgomery County, Maryland or Fairfax County, Virginia. Both are school districts near DC with wealthy neighborhoods. Biden wanted to paint the picture of White mothers reading to their kids and of Black mothers neglecting theirs. All that was missing was a reference to welfare and Cadillacs to complete the stereotype.

And this type of rhetoric plays right along Biden’s legislation which disproportionately affected Black communities. Comments like the one above makes it harder to swallow that Biden didn’t think about the repercussions to his 1994 Crime Bill or to drug enforcement legislation that created the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.

I get that people are afraid and want Trump out. But running back to Uncle Joe is not the answer. The Trump campaign and the Russian propagandists are going to push Biden’s quotes on every urban radio station across the country. They will remind Black voters that it was Joe Biden who wrote the crime bill and locked up their fathers and sons. They will remind Black mothers that Biden believes they don’t read to their children. They will tell Black voters that there is little difference between Trump and Biden on race relations so they might as well stay home. They will ask Black voters is it worth standing in line for hours to vote for a man who thinks so little of them. And I can’t be sure that Black folks won’t listen to them.