As a younger voter in the 1990s, I was initially interested in Joe Biden. He was charismatic, spoke well, and seemed quite reasonable.
Of course, at this time, I didn’t know about his controversial role in the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas case in 1991. While I understood the basics, I had not delved into the nuances of the case and certainly not the role of Biden.
Biden’s history with African Americans runs quite deep and even precedes the Hill/Thomas case. Biden was also against busing in the 1970s. It is likely that many African Americans will support him because they believe he can win but he’s certainly not the best candidate for the interests of the majority of black people.
This is the first I have heard of Joe Biden’s controversial past, as I have only recently begun paying attention to politics. However, to learn this is extremely disappointing, especially considering he served as the Vice President for the first black President of the United States. The article about busing mentions the gradual compliance by both political parties with the increasing segregation demonstrated in several public schools throughout the country. I believe that this is a serious issue that could potentially lead to the intensification of polarity between the Democratic and Republican parties in future generations. By separating children as they develop and mature, they lose a sense of culture and unique perspectives– qualities which are necessary for politicians to appropriately represent a wide number of constituents. Biden’s past actions have already proven that school desegregation will not be a priority on his agenda going into the 2020 Presidential election. For this, I agree with you in saying that he may not be the best candidate for the interests of many black people.
Ever since Joe Biden got into the race, I’ve been thinking a lot about his track record as well. Joe Biden probably has the highest name ID of the candidates right now, a development which actually worries me a bit because of the impact it might have on other candidates…
I wanted to comment on this post today because, unfortunately, I’m a little too invested in twitter and saw something a little worrying. Biden’s comments from 2007 on the difference in quality between DC and Iowa schools have resurfaced as yet another instance of racial insensitivity.
Apparently, Biden said “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.” Biden continued, “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.”
I don’t know if there’s a good way to cut this one. At best, Biden’s statement is idiotically reductive; certainly a student’s economic status can impact their success at school and African American communities have suffered economic hardships through racist legislation and practices, but to reduce school achievement to race is, frankly, just plain racist.
The issue is, as you noted, many voters will flock to Biden because of electability. Unfortunately, electability is not exactly a hard statistic; it is often tied to race, gender, and ideology. That means Biden’s “electability” as a moderate white man is incredibly high, making him appear to be a safe bet to beat Trump, but it’s not that easy–Obama was the least electable candidate for a while, but he won the presidency twice. I at the very least hope that Biden’s past comments get tied to his high name ID and come to become one-and-the-same as his image; at least then we’ll have an image of Biden more accurate to him and more divorced from his association with Obama.