One of the dumbest moments in the 2008 election cycle was when, in early 2007, Joe Biden referred to then-Senator Barack Obama as “clean” and “articulate.” It was a thing, and it became a larger discussion about racial microaggressions and racist dog-whistles and such. At the end of the day, Obama used it as a teachable moment and Biden apologized and clarified and then more than a year later, Obama chose Biden as his VP. This current situation feels like another one of those moments: Biden says something racially problematic, there’s a sh-tstorm, he apologizes and it becomes another larger teachable moment. So what happened? Biden said that if you can’t decide whether to vote for him or for Trump, “you ain’t black.”
Joe Biden told a popular African-American radio host Friday morning that anyone struggling to decide whether to support him or President Donald Trump in the general election “ain’t black.” The presumptive Democratic nominee’s comment came at the end of an at times tense interview with Charlamagne tha God on “The Breakfast Club.” A staffer interjected that Biden needed to go, and Charlamagne shot back: “You can’t do that to black media!”
“I do that to white media and black media because my wife has to go on at 6 o’clock,” Biden said, referring to his wife Jill Biden apparently needing to use the broadcast studio they’ve built in their basement in Delaware as the coronavirus pandemic has knocked Biden off the campaign trail. Glancing at his watch, Biden said, “uh oh, I’m in trouble.”
Charlamagne told Biden that he should come to the studio in New York City for another interview, telling the former vice president that “we’ve got more questions.”
“You’ve got more questions?” Biden replied. “Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
Charlemagne responded, “It don’t have nothing to do with Trump. It has to do with the fact, I want something for my community.”
“Take a look at my record, man!” Biden shot back.
I’m including the video clip below, at the end of the post. I cringed. Even though I understood the point Biden was trying to make, it was bad and it didn’t land. Hours later, Biden apologized:
Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, apologized Friday afternoon for telling a radio host that black voters torn between voting for him and President Trump “ain’t black,” remarks that ignited a firestorm online.
“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” Mr. Biden said in a call with the U.S. Black Chambers. “I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.” He later said that he had not been expected to join the call, a possible sign of a hastily arranged appearance.
“I don’t take it for granted at all,” he said later Friday. “No one, no one, should have to vote for any party based on their race, their religion, their background. There are African-Americans who think that Trump was worth voting for. I don’t think so, I’m prepared to put my record against his. That was the bottom line and it was, it was really unfortunate.”
There was a sh-tstorm on Twitter and #BidenIsRacist was trending on-and-off for days. In my opinion, Joe Biden is a far from perfect ally to many demographics (the African-American community, women) but I also think I’d rather vote for an imperfect ally who has shown the willingness to admit he’s wrong and an ability to learn from his mistakes, rather than a guy who throws a Nazi rally at a Ford plant and talks about “good bloodlines.” I’m also including some tweets I liked about the Biden situation.
The issue wasn’t what Joe Biden said, because it was accurate. The issue was that it came from Biden. It also was clearly a joke that didn’t land. But I’m wondering where all this outrage was yesterday when y’all president declared his public devotion to a Nazi sympathizer.
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) May 22, 2020
Joe Biden is going to be on Red Table Talk before the end of the summer at this rate.
— Sylvia (@SylviaObell) May 22, 2020
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Compared to all the horrible things Trump says Biden’s comment was harmless. And Biden did apologized in a heartfelt way, what more do we want from our future President?
As someone on Twitter said, if you add up all of Joe Biden’s gaffe’s over his entire life, it would add up to one Trump press conference.
The passes that Trump gets for “being Trump” are mind blowing. The double standard is unreal. I’m glad Jemele Hill called it out. More people need to shut it down like she did.
Exactly. Where’s the outrage at Trumps remarks yesterday about Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Stacy Abrams?
Trump did boast that he could shoot someone and his supporters would still love him…so yeah, that’s that!
Yes! The faux outrage by the right is absolutely enraging and so transparent. Did I want JB to be the nominee? No, but you bet your a$$ I’m voting for him. I will vote for a pineapple over trump at this point. And anyone that claims they take issue with this stupid gaffe and it puts into question who they will be voting for but gives trump a pass for everything he’s done and said over the last four years never intended on voting for him in the first place. You are a maga and enabling this entire maga culture if you are pretending you have to stop and consider who to vote for. To me it’s black and white, there is no gray area in this at all and it’s extremely dangerous to act like there is. I read this somewhere,
To put them into perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of sh$t with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then asked how the chicken is cooked.
I am so fed up with Trump. but Biden has always made back hand gaffes and been forgiven. When do we stop holding our noses to cast a vote. As a black female a I am offended by his comment and tired of overlooking these sorry excuses for candidates. Just keeping it real. To the democratic party, please give us some candidates that I can feel proud to vote for and Joe is not it!.
Watch the whole interview, not the replay of how it went down. He lays out how systematic racism, oppression and the drug war moves by Reagan, Bush 1 and Clinton led to the shit that the 1996 Crime Act bill actually existed to help minimize in a lot of ways. Clinton adopting Wisconsin’s terrible Work To Welfare was a bigger detriment to all communities, but especially the black ones.
Our culture is jacked. He’s an insensitive oaf in his mannerisms and speech but he’s changed his tune SIGNIFICANTLY since 2007-8 and was only put on as Barack’s VP to make Clinton calm down and get in line. That he is way left of anything either of them would support now is pretty funny. Plus he’ll pick Stacey or Kamala to help further prove this point.
Go read his entire actual platform. It’s nearly identical to Warren’s but you know… “his” ideas. 😉
I am so fed up with Trump. but Biden has always made back hand gaffes and been forgiven. When do we stop holding our noses to cast a vote. As a black female a I am offended by his comment and tired of overlooking these sorry excuses for candidates. Just keeping it real. To the democratic party, please give us some candidates that I can feel proud to vote for and Joe is not it!.
I am so fed up with Trump. but Biden has always made back hand gaffes and been forgiven. When do we stop holding our noses to cast a vote. As a black female a I am offended by his comment and tired of overlooking these sorry excuses for candidates. Just keeping it real. To the democratic party, please give us some candidates that I can feel proud to vote for and Joe is not it!.
I am so fed up with Trump. but Biden has always made back hand gaffes and been forgiven. When do we stop holding our noses to cast a vote. As a black female a I am offended by his comment and tired of overlooking these sorry excuses for candidates. Just keeping it real. To the democratic party, please give us some candidates that I can feel proud to vote for and Joe is not it!.
I am so fed up with Trump. but Biden has always made back hand gaffes and been forgiven. When do we stop holding our noses to cast a vote. As a black female a I am offended by his comment and tired of overlooking these sorry excuses for candidates. Just keeping it real. To the democratic party, please give us some candidates that I can feel proud to vote for and Joe is not it!.
I’m voting for him, but WHAT WAS HE THINKING? Yeah, I know Trump has said and done worse – but c’mon Joe. What a stupid thing to say.
I think the problem with Biden is that he doesn’t think … he’s never had to, and has just continued to succeed. He’s certainly not going to change at 99, or however old he is now.
EDIT: Just to add that even with that, of course if I was American I would vote for him and not the other fool. It’s just important not to be blind about who you’re supporting
I think another issue Biden has is that one way he’s learned to cope with his stutter is by being very loquacious. And that in and of itself fosters his gaffiness. (I don’t think it’s the ONLY reason he is a gaffe machine but he fosters it)
@Keaton I think you are right. Biden would do better to be succinct. However I do find it hard to imagine a woman, someone poor, African American, immigrant or Native American walking into a voting booth & voting for Trump & having an ounce of concern for anyone other than themselves.
Short of taking an AK47 to a crowd, there’s almost nothing Joe Biden can do to justify voting for the rotten orange. Joe can be a bit of an idiot and he really shouldn’t have won the party’s nomination.
Still he is 1,000,000,0000,0000% better than the monster currently in the White House. I keep trying to imagine what he would do in a second term where he has no more fucks to give.
We’re depending on you guys, Americans, don’t let the world down (again!😉)
Biden has always had foot ‘n’ mouth disease. But he means well. And he tries.
I hope Joe’s chooses a running mate soon, makes few comments only directed by a campaign manager, takes a back seat and does not interfere with a female VP candidate who needs to take the lead.
You know what? Maybe this is a good thing. What he said was horrible, but maybe this will force his hand and he will choose a black woman as VP instead of a white woman. Which would be a really good thing, even if it originates from a bad thing. Yes, it may feel like a consolation prize after what he just did. But it’s what a lot of us want. Lemonade from lemons and all.
I consider it a gaffe, Joe speaks without thinking. I’m from CA voted for Kamala Harris, love to see her as VP. Watching her at the impeachment hearings further cemented my belief she would be a good choice.
@Juls, yes. I so agree. This might endure Kamala Harris as the VP pick.
Based on how Trump treats women, the race will segue into Trump vs. Another Democratic Female He Calls Crazy and Corrupt. We will be forced to see Hillary Round Two. And we just saw several super qualified women that somehow could not get enough votes this year. I’m still grieving that Kamala or Elizabeth isn’t at the top of the ticket and now we have to witness Hillary Round Two? The facebook lie-bots are revving their engines.
Yeah the comment was bad but Bidens brain is slowly slipping out the back of his head, he just needs to make it to November 3rd with an agreeable VP. How is Charlamagne still a thing though? When did he become some exclusive must-do interview type? Why is Joe giving that troll the time of day?
His brain is slipping out of the back of his head? Yes the guy is old but in no way do his gaffes come close to Trump’s constant incoherence and complete ignorance. Please stop.
Biden has been making these gaffes his entire life. This is so Biden. Isn’t there a show That’s so Raven? Well Joe can have a show, That’s so Biden. But this is who the primary voters said we have to have, so I don’t want to hear about it now. He wasn’t my pick. But I have to dance with him.
The Charlamagne angle is bizarre! He is the last person I expected to hear from right now. Strange times we are living in, dear lord please make it stop. I miss Obama so much. I don’t want to say bad things about Biden because all things Trump but he should have been easy to beat the first time and I am worried he will win again.
One tweet that made me laugh:
“Charlamagne is a Russian now. I don’t make the rules. ‘
That is a clever tweet.
Gaffe machine Joe Biden, shut up. Just shut up, for Christ’s sake. Shut up and let the rest of us do the work, before you talk your way into a 2nd trump term! 🙏😣
I have a lot of thoughts on this but I’ve learned to save them for my zoom happy hours. The only thing I’ll say here is this was the death knell for anyone hoping Warren or Klobuchar would be the VP pick.
Not necessarily. Give it a few more weeks and people will have moved on from it as they usually do.
I cannot believe this is the Democratic nominee.
I feel like at this point Trumper‘s are grabbing onto anything. You know and I know that one or two of Bidens gaffes are in no way a direct comparison to all of the horrible horrible things Trump has said and done in his lifetime. Just consider one of Trumps speeches. The awful Troll man has yet to ever offer a sincere apology. F him and F anyone that dares to criticize Biden.
Biden is not above criticism. I obviously will be voting straight Democrat, but not because I think Biden is a perfect person (at all), I am voting for all our sakes to put a good team in overall. And hopefully a black woman VP!
Biden is being Biden. Guaranteed he’ll say more stupid stuff before November 3 that he’ll have to apologize for. It’s unfortunate that our choices are two old white men. One the spawn of Satan and the other Grandpa with no filter.
I will say as an older African American, I’m not in an uproar about what Biden said. Older black voters aren’t sweating Biden’s comments because we’ve lived through worse. I do think folks have let a damn white nationalist have a field day with this thanks to fake outrage. (Anyone see Trump & Cos. fundraising ad about this? #YouAintBlack). I mean the fact that Charlamagne the God is being treated like some serious voice for black voices is offensive. The same man that sold drugs, raped a 15 year old while she was unconscious and still calls Tomi Lahren a friend is now someone that is the voice for black folks? Please.
I’m voting for him and will be volunteering for Democrats but man oh man do I miss Warren.
He is trying to be all folksy and down home bc he thinks that’s how you speak with an African American host. ‘Man’ and ‘you ain’t’ etc. It’s condescending and offensive if you ask me. It shouldn’t be minimized.
He also lied about being endorsed by the NAACP everytime he’s run. They’ve never endorsed him.
Agreed. That attitude is more racist than what he said. It’s his underlying thought process.
Yes. He is being dismissive. Please do better going forward, for all our sakes. Thank you in advance.
No one is minimizing anything, geez. People are just saying the OTT outrage that gives Trump an opening is just mind blowing.
I got what he was trying to say but he A) was the wrong person to say it because no white person should tell a black person how to vote B) he said it all wrong and C) it shows a serious miscalculation for him to make these statements.
No white person should tell a black person how.to.Be.Black
Most definitely.
Agreed. Further, no person should tell another person how to be whatever they actually are. For instance, one black person shouldn’t tell another that they are not “black enough”. No one, regardless of orientation or race, should tell gay people that they are “too gay” or “not gay enough”.
He’s an old white man with a history of saying stupid shit. What exactly are we surprised about? And if we PoC want more for our communities we can stop voting for liberals who have economic platforms identical to the platforms of republicans in the 1970’s. The Democratic Party has been hoodwinked by Milton Friedman and his acolytes. Economic justice and racial just must go hand in hand. And Joe “no Medicare for all under any circumstances” is not the guy for the job. He’s what we got so I’ll vote for him, but only for the Supreme Court seat.
I agree. The next six months are going to be a one thing after another mess. Even that Beto dude would have been an improvement over this, yikes.
Lesser of two evils is all we got. Tragically unprogressive I agree.
I think what Joe Biden said was stupid and careless. I think what bothers me the most though is that it seemed so innocent. He was not trying to hurt anyone like Trump and I don’t think he was trying to be racist. He was just ignorant. He clearly didn’t learn from his experience in 2007. As a minority that doesn’t make me feel great. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to vote for Joe because my only other option is Trump. Do I want to? No. To me, Joe Biden is just another old rich white guy who should have given up his power years ago but is still clinging to it with everything he’s got.
So many smart women running but we still end up having to pick from these edge. It really shows you what an edge being an older white Male gives you. I’ll still vote for him to get rid of Trump. But dang…
I was really disappointed when Biden and Sanders announced they were running for president. They are just too old. If you take it seriously, this job so hard and takes a huge toll on one’s body. Just look how fast Obama aged in eight years and he was the young, fit one. They should have just let the younger ones run and bring in new ideas. Warren is really old, too, but at least she is not a white man.
Ugh, now the one left is an old, white man with at times questionable behaviour. But at least he is not mean spirited…or Trump.
Talk about sticking a needle in a balloon. I was the balloon to his stupidity needle. Obviously SpongeBob’s best friend Patrick would be a better president than what we have, but come on Biden. Just ride the f*cking train.
Stupid thing to say for sure. Both men are old, white, privileged and out of touch. I can’t believe these are the types of candidates we are left with AGAIN. I’m hoping if Biden wins, he will bow out in 4 years and we can get someone younger and fresh in office.
OK but I am SO here for him getting a slot on Red Table Talk. I would pay good money to see Jada/Gammy/Willow hand it to him with their mind-bending combination of timeless beauty, intelligence and grace. Maybe we could start a poll!
Whatever. It was stupid and condescending, but he apologized for it. Media, I do not care. I live in a swing state and know exactly how I have to vote in 2020, end of story.
I am still VOTING for him……….he can’t possibly be worse than orange man!!!
I don’t live in a Swing state but I am still voting for JOE BIDEN
I hate everything about this election. Everything. Biden is an idiot and a freaking perv. No, he isn’t as bad as Trump, but that doesn’t make me feel any better about him being the nominee. Yes, I will vote for him because I would vote for a pile of dog shit if it got Trump out of office. I don’t like it though, not one bit. This is all bs.
What he said was right. It just shouldn’t have been said by him. Or any other white person for that matter. He apologized. Since I am in fact black I accept his apology. Im fine with moving on. It’s funny to me how many white people are up in arms about this vs black people.
All of Trump’s minions, including Junior and Charlie Kirk, swarmed all over it, as if they weren’t working for a white supremacist who had just the day before invoked a Nazi slogan about bloodlines while standing in the middle of a Ford plant.
@ Valiantly Varnished I agree.
I agree with Jemele Hill.
Jemele Hill
✔
@jemelehill
The issue wasn’t what Joe Biden said, because it was accurate. The issue was that it came from Biden. It also was clearly a joke that didn’t land. But I’m wondering where all this outrage was yesterday when y’all president declared his public devotion to a Nazi sympathizer.
Ugh, he needs to do better! But is most of the outrage over his remarks coming from the black community or from the ultra “woke” white Bernie supporters? Joe clearly gets the black vote and is a way better choice for POC IMO than Trump (and all of humanity). I feel like those that hate Biden the most are the ultra liberal white voters who have the privilege to not vote this year because Bernie didn’t get the nominee and they are constantly whining about how awful he is. POC don’t have the luxury of waiting for a perfect candidate and sitting this one out. I hoping for an awesome VP pick we can all get behind.
300 M people in America. And we pick this dude.
At this stage the only thing I need Biden to do is deafest Trump in November. That’s it. Save the handwringing and judgement for after the inauguration. Just get that horrible man out of office.
‘Where was the outrage when….?’ is the new whataboutism.