Joe Biden, the vice president to former President Barack Obama, and the most appealing candidate to African Americans, may very well become America’s next president.
In an unexpected turn of events, Biden surpassed fellow Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders in the polls after the South Carolina primary votes were calculated.
According to Forbes, 61% of African American voters in South Carolina chose Biden, who won with another 72% of the African American votes in Alabama, 62% in Virginia and 58% in Texas. He received 71% of the votes from African American voters on Super Tuesday according to the same Forbes article.
Biden took other big wins Tuesday in Idaho, Montana,Michigan, Missouri and Missippi, with two-thirds of the votes in Missippi coming from African Americans, according to the New York Post.
Despite so many African American voters rooting for Biden, it may not be because of his political
track record.
In the minds of voters, his role during a Black president’s administration seems to eclipse his history of ill-efforted Black support.
In a Feb. 29 about the South Carolina primary The New York Times wrote, “[Black] voters cited [Biden’s] familiarity with their concerns and his potential to appeal to moderate republicans in a general election.”
The experience in office is helpful, but can we trust Biden to support the Black community if he has not been the most racially-inclusive person?
His bromance and undeniable chemistry with the Obama family do not erase his unwelcoming policy decisions.
In 1972, during his run for Senate, Biden supported desegregation busing – “the practice of transporting students to schools within or outside their local school districts,” as defined by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
After getting elected, Biden, a self-proclaimed liberal, opposed it.
During a 1975 interview with The People Paper, a publication that was centered in Delware, Biden called the policy “asinine” and said no one had proved its usefulness to him.
“That’s racist! Who the hell do we think we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child?” Biden said.
Although Biden makes offensive comments and takes questionable actions, it does not seem like African American voters will stop him from representing Democrats in challenging President Trump.
In the 2019 primary debate in Houston, Biden was asked what responsibilities Americans need to take to repair the social damages of slavery and his answer was undeniably driven by stereotypes.
“We bring social workers into [the] homes of parents to help them deal with how to raise their children . . . They don’t know quite what to do,”
Biden said.
Not only did he criticize parenting capabilities in the Black community, as if there aren’t any successful African Americans who were raised by Black parents. But he also explicitly states that he, a white man, can repair this “damage.”
Biden, though a man of smiles and a cherished Obama-era fixture, is not the most comprehensive candidate to represent Democrats.
It is truly sad that a man with this political past seems to be the only viable opponent to Trump.
Good luck, America.
