Two pieces of Jill Biden news today, in what is turning out to be an important week for the First Lady’s office. First off, President Biden formally declined the invitation to King Charles’s coronation. Biden did so in a personal call to King Charles. The White House also announced that First Lady Dr. Jill Biden would attend the Chubbly in the president’s place.
First lady Jill Biden will represent the U.S. at the coronation of King Charles III next month, President Joe Biden told the royal during a Tuesday call, the White House said.
Biden said he looked forward to meeting with the king in the U.K. “at a future date,” the White House said, and that his wife “looks forward to attending on behalf of the United States.”
The White House said the pair also discussed the “strength of the relationship between our countries and the friendship between our peoples.”
The president and the first lady jointly attended last year’s funeral in London for Elizabeth II. No sitting U.S. president has ever attended a British royal coronation.
I feel like Dr. Biden is too important to attend this stupid Struggle Chubbly. Like, if the White House is making a point of President Biden turning down the invite, than surely the WH should just send Pete Buttigieg or something. Definitely not FLOTUS or VPOTUS. Especially not after the palace gave free rein to the unhinged British media to attack President Biden for the past four days.
Meanwhile, Dr. Biden has never gotten such bad press as she did this week, when she spoke about how much she enjoyed the NCAA women’s basketball final and expressed her desire to invite the winning team (the LSU Tigers) AND the losing team (Iowa Hawkeyes). It was a bad look, it was an insensitive look, and it looked like Dr. Biden wanted to make a point of giving white women a participation trophy. Dr. Biden’s office began walking back her comments on Tuesday, making a point of saying that only the LSU Tigers are invited to the White House:
First lady Jill Biden appeared to walk back suggestions that the White House might invite both LSU and Iowa’s women’s basketball teams after Tigers star Angel Reese called it “A JOKE” on Monday. Speaking on Monday, Biden congratulated both teams on their performance in Sunday’s national championship game, as well as specifically highlighting Iowa’s sportsmanship.
“Last night, I attended the NCAA women’s basketball championship,” said Biden, while speaking at an event at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. “So I know we’ll have the champions come to the White House, we always do. So, we hope LSU will come but, you know, I’m going to tell Joe [Biden] I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game.”
It is traditional for the national champions to be invited to the White House, but not for the runners-up. Reese tweeted a link to the story which included Biden’s comments, calling it “A JOKE” along with three rolling-on-floor-laughing emojis.
In a comment on an Instagram post from ‘The Shade Room’ which included Reese’s tweet, the recently crowned NCAA champion said: “WE NOT COMING. period.”
Press secretary to the first lady Vanessa Valdivia sought to clarify Biden’s comments on Tuesday, saying in a tweet that they “were intended to applaud the historic game and all women athletes. She looks forward to celebrating the LSU Tigers on their championship win at the White House.”
Before Valdivia’s clarification, ESPN host Stephen A. Smith had echoed Reese’s sentiment, replying to her tweet saying: “I mean absolutely zero disrespect to the First Lady, but you are 1000% correct.
I think we can do two things at once: call out Jill Biden for the insensitivity of suggesting that it wouldn’t be enough to recognize the mostly-Black team (the Tigers), that white women (the Hawkeyes) must be included too; and also recognize that Jill Biden’s comments were in the moment, and likely came from a place of wanting to praise all of the young women for being amazing. She’s a teacher and professor and she’s seen the benefits of Title IX for decades. But yeah, it was insensitive and I think most people would appreciate it if Dr. Biden went on the record about what she’s learned from this incident.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- United States President Joe Biden pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey”Chocolate” and “Chip” during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC Featuring: President Joe Biden, Chip Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 21 Nov 2022 Credit: Chris Kleponis/CNP/startraksphot/Cover Images
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- United States President Joe Biden pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey”Chocolate” and “Chip” during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, DC Featuring: President Joe Biden Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 21 Nov 2022 Credit: Chris Kleponis/CNP/startraksphot/Cover Images
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- United States President President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden host a Lunar New Year Reception with Elaine Tso, CEO of Asian Services in Action (ASIA) at the White House in Washington, DC on January 26, 2023. Featuring: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 26 Jan 2023 Credit: Chris Kleponis/CNP/startraksphot/Cover Images
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- President Joe Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and Nasa Astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli during a reception celebrating Nowruz at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 20, 2023. Featuring: First Lady Dr. Jill Biden Where: Washington, District Of Columbia, United States When: 20 Mar 2023 Credit: Chris Kleponis/Pool/CNP/startraksphoto.com
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- President Joe Biden presents the Arts and Humanities Award during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Tuesday, March 21, 2023. The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the federal government. It is awarded by the president of the United States to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States. Featuring: President Joe Biden and first lady Dr. Jill Biden Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 21 Mar 2023 Credit: CNP/startraksphoto.com
Whew. My girl Dr. Jill got DRAGGED. She needed it and hopefully it makes her think when it comes to things of that nature. I think it’s a waste of time for her to go to the Emperors With No Clothes coronation but at alas…
Yup. Black Twitter completely gathered her.
She deserved it though.
YES WE DID…WE SERVED IT UP PROPPA…NICE & NASTY😝
+1
I doubt Casey DeSantis will give one when she and Rick get into office
I think Dr Biden will find the coronation very interesting. The previous one was last century!!
I googled…. Nancy Reagan attended Charles and Diana’s wedding.
Look up: Nancy Reagan at ‘fairyland’ royal wedding.’
Sending her to the con-a-nation is her punishment. There she can see white supremacy in action.
@brassyrebel, agreed, but oh wouldn’t it be wonderful if her plus one was Harry 😂”message to BP, yes prince Harry will be attending, accompanying the first lady, they will be arriving on airforce two so I hope you don’t mind that Megan is to busy picking up awards to attend your little shindig 😂😂
@BMary Pester This is the ONLY solution! LOL!
@Mary Pestet.I love your post about Dr. Jill and Harry as her plus one!
I am enormously supportive of Joe and. Jill Biden, but I wish she wasn’t attending that farce of a Coronation. Eleanor Roosevelt didn’t attend for George VI and Bess Truman didn’t attend for Elizabeth II. We fought a long and bloody war to rid ourselves of kings and queens and I would prefer to keep it that way. Send the US ambassadors to attend. That’s their job. Charles and the Rottweiler don’t deserve that honor for we all know who should be being crowned Queen at this ceremony and it’s not the Sidepiece.
And please, Harry, stay at home. We love you, Meghan and your family. We’re happy to have you safely here with us. Blessings!!
😂😂😂
As the First Lady of a nation that fought a war to free ourselves from this monarchy, why would she go? It makes no sense. The only attendants should be other royals. As for the LSU ladies, they should decline the White House invite. It’s an insult to have ever invited the losing team and then make it out to be a joke.
I don’t follow sports at all, so when I saw that she wanted to invite both teams I thought that was super progressive and feminist and anti-competitive, and I loved it.
The game had historic viewership, and I initially viewed it as a recognition that women’s basketball had achieved super solid interest for once (and Iowa was a huge part of that interest, like it or not). But I completely understand LSU feeling like it was a snub, like only the women have to share the table, the men never do, And of course the racial overtones there. It’s too bad, it would be nice to see that tradition started for both men and women’s sports. The women, especially, get so little recognition, so I’m all in favor of doing anything that gets more women recognized. But this was not the way to go about it, it needed to be said ahead of the game.
It’s not any of those things.
I get where her comment came from but it’s just not okay. EVERY time there is any Black accomplishment, white people always have to get included somehow. I don’t even watch anything but baseball and I know this was really bad. She can visit the other team if she wants (although that would be equally terrible) but the White House visit is for the winners.
The only thing that helps to mitigate it is my suspicion she was just saying a random offhand comment, but it still says a lot about her perception of this event. So I am glad the White House is doubling down that it won’t be happening.
I have to laugh : progressive ,anti competitive and feminist,SMH… the perspective that ppl who aren’t black is so out of touch.. what about intersectionality? How about how white ppl attacked and shamed Angel? But now it’s kumbaya
@C: “EVERY time there is any Black accomplishment, white people always have to get included somehow.”
It’s funny but reading your statement reminded of when Pres. Obama won his re-election campaign against Mitt Romney in 2012. Obama gave an acceptance speech during which time he made a passing statement that if there’s ever a chance when he/administration and Romney can work together on a particular project, they should do so. Well, that’s ALL some white reporters had to hear because after that they kept asking about a shared project for Romney (participation trophy) at every White House press conference. I remember reading about it at the time and thinking how unprecedented it was.
Finally, just to shut them up, I guess, the Obama admin. announced that they would invite Romney to lunch with the President. I remember being ticked off that they had to even do that at the time. However, afterward it was reported that they’d served Romney some king of fowl (chicken or turkey) which was later characterized as Romney “eating crow” and Obama took a picture with Romney where Romney looked disheveled and still-reeling from the loss. It was beautiful that the administration turned an effort to hamstring them on a standard platitude into another reinforcement on who had won and who had lost. Here’s your participation trophy, now get lost! It was very effective.
And @Simone: Yes, “progressive, anti-competitive and feminist” all at this time, thereby diluting the LSU women’s championship winning moment into an “everybody wins or is honored.” But where was this “feminist” enthusiasm when it came to protecting Angel from being called a “thug”? Shaquille O’Neil was one of the few who said she’s a child.
It reminds me of a few incidents. Jane Campion targeting Venus and Serena for “not playing against the men like she has to” after their movies got awarded, the way Julia Roberts centered herself when Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Training Day, stuff like that.
I mean you guys did you forget when white women in Hollywood banded together and excluded Viola and Danielle to vote for their white colleague, Andrea Risoborough.
How we are still punished for our hairstyles but Kim can do braids and call them Bo Derek , Tony Yayo invent the sign that now everybody think it’s John Cena, how South Carolina’s team was called a bunch of thugs(a team of majority black players who play physical ), how Angel was harshly criticized for the same gestures that Caitlin did ….
If we are treated the same, then we can talk … not when there is so much inequality and ppl’s biases.
These college athletes busts their asses off, put their bodies through things, put in the work( and I am talking every team) and wants to be recognized for it. Why ppl are so dismissive about it?
Do ppl have the full picture here before having an opinion? Or are we black women, just anti progressive and anti feminist because we don’t agree with this?
Jill Biden was out of her depth and what she said was out of line and stems of privilege and racism naivete.
If she wanted women’s basketball, why didn’t she invite all the teams who did the NCAA tournament? Why single out these two? And why as a prominent woman, didn’t she call out the racist sexist names given to Angel Reese or how Dawn Staley has to call out reporters? No she thought inviting the Iowa girls was a good idea, SMH.. Intersectionality is really an unknown notion in white feminism.
@Ang: If Iowa had won there was no way Jill would be saying she wanted LSU to come to the WH too.
100% THIS @Amy Bee. Spot on. The coddling of WW in this country is truly appalling.
I mean the nerve when Black women are the very reason she is FLOTUS right now. The majority of WW voted for White Supremacy and Trump.
I’m glad Dr. Biden got dragged for this. She deserves it and now i can’t even look at her the same. I’m so tired of all this. They don’t grow or change. Look at all these racist reporters sending out weak apologies or none at all when they blasted the airways with their racism to protect their girl. Until we pushed back and called this by its right name. Loudly.
Invite both teams for what? So we can have more WW in the room? Iowa and the next coming of Jesus Caitlyn got their asses handed to them – they lost by 18 points. It wasn’t even close. This wasn’t a game won at the buzzer.
I’m so glad Black Twitter is here for none of it! I know Steve Jobs had the goal of making everyone anti social like him but the by product of all of this phone addiction and social media is that these tools have elevated our voices! White people don’t get to control the narrative anymore. Social media has been the great equalizer. That’s what makes ne think it’s going to eventually go away. They’ve lost control of the narrative and the ability to police Black people and be openly racist without repercussions.
This! :-/
Remember when Dr Jill Biden as her position as First lady had to visit a school teacher/policy meeting with Duchess Kate AKA mumbles during a world leader (G8?) meeting in england a couple of years ago during covid?
Dr Jill unknowingly insulted Kate and the royal /BP idiots cuz she called them out -on camera- on their ludicrously short teacher/policy roundtable meeting –that lasted only about 14 minutes :). The english assumed she’d know enough” to not say squat and just play along.
I wish we weren’t ‘t sending any one important to this meeting becuz the way BP/ TOry GOvernment/ English media has treated President Joe and Meghan/Harry and repeatedly treated Americans in general.
Hopefully First Lady Dr Jill can use these 2 experiences to ‘see’ the bigger picture and act accordingly at this coronation. this isn’t the time or place for any Kumbaya attempts by Jill cuz those Tory/english people think her and Joe and the rest of US, are low class peasants. I hope Jill goes and acts like there’s a funny smell in the rooms and just ices them subtlety — just the way they love doing to others.
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We’re always hearing “women supporting women”, so if both teams were white or both teams were black, that would be how this was perceived. It may or may not have been impulsively meant this way, since the meeting of both teams brought historic viewers to the women’s games, and ALL the women have worked very hard to get to that point in a society that has not rewarded women athletes comparably to men. But since one team was white and the other black, it’s easily perceived as racist, and she should have known better. It was very foolish and I hope she learns a lesson from this.
Nicki, the point so many-but especially we Black women- are making is that Dr. Biden did this BECAUSE of racism. Race isn’t something incidental that added an unfortunate wrinkle to Biden’s innocent gesture. She wouldnt have made this offer if both teans had the same racial makeup.
Some people, including some Johnny-come-lately reporters and athletes, want to paint the whole White House invitation incident as just a disparity between the way men’s sports is respected and women’s sports is trivialized. They want to paint it as purely sexism. T’isn’t. Otherwise, Clark would have also been castigated for her hand gestures and comments to other teams when her team was winning. Apparently, this “Now you see me, now you don’t” hand gesture which was popularized by wrestler John Cena was borrowed from a rapper named Tony Yayo too. In Clark’s case, it wasn’t just taunting with hand gestures either, at one point she told a losing opponent, “You’re down 15 points, shut up.” And wouldn’t you know it, not only did Clark not get criticized for that, but she was also praised for her competitiveness and called a “role model” by athlete Rebecca Lobo.
Personally, I don’t get the bravado and trash-talking that athletes display when they’re winning but it’s field, not mine. But if society is going to ignore some athletes’ actions or even praise them for such actions, then that standard must be evenly applied. I think that’s why some people were more upset by the Jill Biden invitation after all that Angel Reese had been through after winning. It just reinforced an old maxim that black people must work twice as hard to get things that seemed to be just handed to white people. I don’t believe that this incident makes J. Biden a Karen, but it was extremely tone deaf to say the least.
Gawd. I love in another place so thank you for explaining Nikki what this was all about. As someone (clearly) not familiar enough with American culture, it actually sounds pretty racist to me that Jill’s comments were perceived as such! I thought they were inclusive and supportive to all women athletes. I did not know about one of these teams being Black and the other White. It is sad that cultural differences have to be viewed there in terms of skin colour. What if you’re mixed race but no one can tell? I can’t imagine what it would be like in Europe if “White” were viewed as one distinct cultural group like it seems to be in the US. There is no “white” box to check when you identify your race in the UK, for example – it’s an endless list of different types of white so they can better classify you (white Polish, white traveler, for instance). I prefer France’s position which is that from the government’s perspective, there are no racial classifications and it would be illegal for any govt form to ask. Such a system would probably be easier for JB.
It’s SPORTS – it’s competitive, it was a championship game! There is nothing wrong with women getting on a court and competing. Even the best player on the losing team said they weren’t going to the WH, because she’s a fierce competitor too and knows that she and her team don’t belong there. It’s not their moment.
This was a horrible look from Dr. Biden, just horrible. Major mistakes were made and apologies should be made!
Dr. Biden, first and foremost, is a teacher. What she was wanting was a form of *participation trophy*. Its wrong in schools and it was wrong here.
Not everyone wins. Unfortunately, kids aren’t learning that.
Children know that participation trophies are not actual victories (when they are old enough to know the difference between winning and losing) and as psychologists have noted, children have been well aware of that since this phenomenon of participation trophies started being introduced in the 1920’s (and let’s note they reached their peak popularity in the 1960s, not recently). They have very little to do with the concept of asking a historic sports team of Black female players to celebrate their win at the White House alongside the others who lost that game. Otherwise, all teams would have been invited not just two.
What part of this is a competition are people not getting? Comments that praise Jill for being non-competitive do not make sense when we are talking about a championship I which teams compete to win.
@Ang I agree with you. I don’t watch basketball and knew nothing of this game before reading this article. Seems like a nice gesture to me and I do think she would have invited both teams no matter who won. Plus sports in general is too hyped in my opinion. I’m all for participation trophies because everyone worked hard and in the end who really cares or remembers who won in a year from now?
“I’m all for participation trophies because everyone worked hard and in the end who really cares or remembers who won in a year from now?”
Everyone still remembers who wins, lol. Even in elementary school with a participation ribbon we did.
And people WILL remember this because it’s an historic win for LSU. There’s a reason the winners of these things get invited to the White House in the first place.
@ Ang…same here
@ang yea agree. it was def not the best thing to do bc no one has invited losing teams bf so someone should have told her that. she got backlash and learned her lesson, but i don’t think she should be dragged. we don’t know if she wouldn’t have done the same thing if the roles were reversed. she didn’t take into context the entire controversy of what happened to Reese when she said that. really think it was an offhand comment she shouldn’t have made.
As a teacher she should know better, if one student get an “A” is going to give the rest of the class A(s), no.
Harvard?!
Sorry Jill’s going to the coronation. That shows that anyone but some Brits actually about Chuck’s big display. It isn’t as if Chuck is an important world leader, with political or economic influence.
Um, The Guardian dropped its “Cost of the Crown” series today, and that is all about how the monarchy profits on archaic antidemocratic laws and treatment and turns a profit… why on earth is Jill Biden accepting an invitation to the coronation? She’s been married to a politician for years, but she’s now made her second tone deaf move in a matter of days.
I don’t think it’s up to Jill. As you say, she’s been a politician’s wife for years – his interests come first.
The UK are still US allies and it is up to the citizens who support the monarchy financially to decide when to say no more to it.
Yes, that’s the thing. Charles is the acknowledged sovereign and commander-in-chief of the UK and many other nations. If those nations want to get rid of him, that’s a different thing, but right now he represents several allies and that can’t be ignored, no matter what we think of monarchies or Charles as a person.
+1, equality. I don’t think her attending the coronation is tone deaf.
“Charles is the acknowledged sovereign and commander-in-chief of the UK and many other nations.”
Specifically, Charles is acknowledged sovereign and commander-in-chief of four of the five-eye intelligence alliance codified in the initially secret UK-USA treaty, later enacted in 1946 and amended to include British Commonwealth.
Exactly! It’s up to the majority of the citizens of the UK to decide when to stop having a monarchy. Not up to foreigners. Even the people in Commonwealth countries don’t have a vote. It will be interesting when Australia has a referendum to become a republic or not. Somebody on TV thinks republicans will lose, because ‘we can’t agree on anything!’ We’ll see.
Because the UK is one of the USA’s most important allies, like it or not.
Where other allies might not always follow the USA in everything and are not afraid to speak up when they disagree (Freedom Fries anyone?), the UK can be counted on to back up the USA. even if it doesn’t take the wisest course.
My issue is that JB attending a coronation sets a precedent. The US and UK have been allies for a very long time and the US have never sent someone so close to the president to a coronation. Plus, the reporting on KC has been terrible and, in theory, not the values associated with the Democrats or the US. This was an easy, “No thank you.” And she flubbed it.
Whenever the USA has an issue, the first ally they always seem to turn to is the UK.
So, there’s an invitation from one of the biggest symbols in the UK. President Biden is not going, which seems normal to me as he’s an elected head of state with other things to do. Doctor Biden is not elected on the other hand and can do things for personal relations without getting in the way of vital work that a president has to work on.
If the president and his wife held up their nose for all Heads of State with bad values, the USA would quickly lose a lot of allies and damage their standing with neutral countries as well. The UK is not nearly even the worst of them.
Eurydice and Equality, personally I feel that JB’s attending KC’s coronation is “not good.” The Obamas did not attend the coronations of the Dutch or Spanish kings—those countries are the US’s allies, too. Plus, the UK has moved further to the right politically since 2013-14. Why set this precedent? Part of the British argument was also that less people could attend due to modern safety violations—why have JB be one of them? Since his ascension, KC’s shady business dealings, his mistreatment of his first wife, the racism of the Commonwealth, slavery, tax evasion, poor treatment of Harry and Meghan (who is a US citizen) have been published in the past six months. JB attending KC’s crowning supports this.
Were the Obamas invited to those coronations? My understanding was that the Dutch didn’t go all out.
@Equality, I don’t think they were invited.
The Dutch coronation happened almost exactly ten years ago and was in place of what was before Queen’s Day (now: King’s Day). This is a day with lots of street parties, people falling into canals and other events, so the coronation was treated as a sort of King’s Day+ with parties etc, but also a coronation happening at the same time. In other words, it was mostly just a normal Dutch celebration that happens every year.
The Dutch are culturally far less focused on big ceremonies than the English. I think it was less than 3 months before the coronation that it even became known that the Queen would abdicate in favor of Willem-Lex, so that says quite a lot about how much less preparation was put into it.
As an extra tidbit: a staple of King’s Day is people offering to have eggs thrown at them for a little money. They even provide the egg for you to throw.
Don’t think that will be an event that will make it to the UK somehow.
My personal viewpoint: yesterday JB was rightly dragged for wanting to invite the the winners and losers. There is no precedent to invite both—Whatever her motivation, this was tone deaf and I’m glad she walked that back.
H&M highlighted slavery, the British Empire and the Commonwealth during their Netflix special. There has been a push among European countries with a colonial/slavery history to look into the repercussions of how that has impacted former colonies and people of color. The Dutch king is having his family investigated, for instance. Jamaica has indicated that they will be separating from the Commonwealth. The Guardian has a few articles on the costs of the monarchy that they published today. There is no precedent for a president or president’s spouse to attend a coronation and looking at the current events, why support an unpopular king? That’s why I feel that this is a misstep. The US and GB have been close without the US having close ties with the monarchy. Better not to start now.
I may be wrong here, but I think that part of @ML’s point is that when Queen Eliz. had her coronation, Pres. Eisenhower did not attend and did not send America’s First Lady. He sent some ambassadors and said, “There you go to her.” Special friendship maintained.
@ML – The US has been allied with far worse governments that whatever is conservative in the UK now, and that’s also been true of the UK. And life is very different now than it was during the last coronation – we don’t have to adhere to traditions of the past if they don’t fit what’s necessary in the present and the future. If the president thinks it’s appropriate for his administration to acknowledge the coronation of an ally’s new sovereign, then that’s his choice. If people don’t like that they can let him know or vote for somebody else next year.
Debbie, yes, thank you.
Jill Biden is no Melania, she’s worked her entire life, helped disabled children, etc,… I admire her for many things. However, the basketball debacle was a misstep and I feel that someone who studied history in America would stay far away from a coronation. Yesterday the hidden costs of the British monarchy were published in a series of articles in the Guardian; today they’ve published a series of articles linking the monarchy to slavery. The monarchy is like plantation owners—JB should not associate with this. It’s never been done before and now when beleaguered KC needs support a high-level Democrat is going to give him relevancy and visuals?
Just finished reading their first article; was so impressed I donated to them. Can hardly wait for the rest of the Guardian’s efforts.
It’s called international diplomacy. She’s not going because she WANTS to go so she can hob-nob with the nobs, it’s how countries — especially NATO members — do business.
Oof what a mess. I do NOT think she should go to the coronation though. Boycott the Chubbly!
Doctor Biden is not elected, so I think sending the First Lady is a good representative for this kind of fluff. Sending an elected head of state who is not exactly from around the corner (so long distance travel etc) would be too much.
She can do some soft-power foreign relations work this way.
I haven’t heard anything about queens/kings who are around the corner from the UK attending.
I agree with this take re the coronation.
Regarding the women’s b-ball championship, Dr. Biden made an awful and cringeworthy mistake and I’m glad she was called out. I think she’s great, but she’s not infallible.
The First Lady is not elected but it is costing us tax payer’s money to send her to the coronation to celebrate a the reign of a monarchy while Americans are barely able to pay their bills.
No, Jill gets know out from me. If she wanted to praise the two teams for the game that’s fine but to say she wanted Iowa to come to the WH was tone deaf and white feminism. Maybe Jill is the right person to go the coronation after all.
You said a mouthful. Her attending the cornynation is so disgustingly on brand, as she continues showing her ascot.
@Amy Bee no lies detected. Thank you! We all know if Iowa had won LSU would get no such invite.
With MAGA folks, you can argue they’re dumb AF, easily manipulated, and they don’t understand equality (because they think their mediocrity is tantamount to superiority over other races). I think it’s so disappointing when intelligent liberals show their racism, because they understand equality in principle, and yet, they still can’t implement its principles in real time. Something about that burns me because they can’t get past their own bigotry to do what they know to be the right thing.
I hate when people show me show they are at their core. Sigh…
Dr. Biden could have so easily done a separate event or put out a strong statement applauding the record attendance/viewing of the Women’s tournament and applauding not just this year’s players, but within broader historical context of title IX, women’s athletics, WNBA, etc AND had LSU come to the White House to celebrate their championship. No need whatsoever to mix two very different and commendable things. It’s very frustrating how much she messed this up and insulted LSU.
I figured she’d walk back the invite to both teams, especially since the Iowa team’s coach declined it. So, er, I don’t know how much credit she should get for realizing her mistake, and how much should go to the Iowa team for noping out of a huge mess and refusing to participate in the racism of it.
I wish she wasn’t going to the stupid Chubbly. That kind of utter nonsense is the ambassador’s job. We threw out the monarchy over 250 years ago — the president’s wife should not be supporting them.
What are the Bidens doing? The LSU thing was a major unforced error, but the coronation is positively anti-American. Was our whole premise not rejection of the idea of monarchy? Charles is nobody and the UK’s standing in the world is significantly diminished. I guess Charles had the government strong arm Joe into sending someone.
The UK is still one of the USA’s biggest allies.
Their standing is diminished but they can usually be counted upon to back up the USA in most things and they are still one of the biggest economies in the world. The president going would have been weird, imo, but she’s not an elected official and a a first lady seems like the perfect person to send to that kind of thing.
Most people don’t talk about it as much as we do here. Seems more like a ticking the box: sending representative to ally: check.
Next agenda point…
Surely Dr. Jill’s attendance is no more anti-American than General Marshall leading a delegation to Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation on behalf of President Eisenhower?
She was rightly criticized for her LSU comment & pivoted, but sending her to the coronation is a perfectly fine way to deploy FLOTUS. It makes much more sense than sending VP Harris or a Cabinet member, all of whom have plenty of work to do.
Marshall was sent as one of four ambassadors/special ambassadors.
I agree, Lizzie. I think a First Lady is perfect for this type of thing.
She’s not an elected official, but still represents a closeness to the Head of State that helps with foreign relations.
I agree with you. I think they should have sent someone like John Kerry – he would check the “military” and “statesman with international experience” boxes.
I would say this is a demonstration about how confronting and changing racism and all discrimination has to be systemic and not just personal responsibility. In a vacuum this action is fine, nice and sweet even. Even the people upset were more frustrated and didn’t apply malice to dr.Biden . The issue is even if this was a 1 time mistake on her behalf its not the first time black people esp black woman have had to deal with this type of mistake. Even with how young those ladies are they immediately understood the subtext or even the unconscious bias that was applied here. Reese and the other black young woman on that team will have dealt with nice white ppl doing nice white things that in its totality reinforce the status quo of white supremacy just as much or even more than the hardcore evil stuff. A single mistake by a white person is usually the 1000x a black person has that experience. Being nice doesn’t prevent individual actions from creating racist impacts. That’s the frustration with being a marginalized community you have to spend a lot of energy making the calculations of whether these was an intended slight or a well meaning but insensitive action. It takes up sooooooooo much energy that can be used to far greater things. If these girls can win a a national championship imagine how much more they can achieve without the burdens of racism and sexism and other discrimination.
I do think dr.Biden should say something but I doubt they will right now just cause that will extend the media cycle more likely months from now during a soft focus controlled profile she will have a few remarks about the lessons she learned.
This is such a great comment. Thank you for sharing it. I don’t think Dr.Biden intended to cause harm but we need to separate cause from intent when dealing with mircoaggressions and this was an enormous error, especially in the context of events around this championship.
This surprised me as Dr. Jill is usually more astute. Well it wasn’t insensitive, it was offensive. Would she have had the same reaction for the men’s NCAA championship winning team? No, bc no one likes participation trophies in any sport at that high level and you celebrate the victors! Invite both teams (or better yet, the final four competing teams) back at a later time. But don’t diminish one team’s victory, by claiming to “celebrate all women” by inviting the runners up at the same event. Its a pitiful bs excuse. I’m glad those young women stood up for themselves and refused to accept scraps no other sports team has been forced to accept. I hope having to deal with this nonsense and with those white men having the vapors over Angel Reese hasn’t stolen the LSU Tigers’ joy of winning the championship.
It sounds like the Prez told C-Rex in no uncertain terms that US presidents have never attended any coronations and he’s not breaking precedent. I know the BM hated to acknowledge that fact, them being allergic and all…
I hope he told C-Rex to stop the press bs or he won’t send anyone from the US. I do hate that Dr Jill is going to the ClownFest though. Maybe she can get a juggler or a mime to be her plus one so at least she’ll have some entertainment. I hope she gives C-Rex copies of the Declaration of Independence so they will finally realize that the US hasn’t been a colony for centuries.
Your first paragraph brought to me a “Never mind who actually won, all players matter!” energy. You explained it well.
The First Lady should NOT be attending the coronation. The Ambassador should be going. She’s already right there in London, and this seems like it would be something in the job description.
Send Buttigeg is honestly the best idea. With his husband as his plus one, arms around each other smiling for the global pictures. We sent you a young good looking cabinet member. Soft diplomacy achieved.
Why subject the gay man to the Struggly? Plus he and his husband have two very young children, who had health problems as infants. Pete and Chasten B. are not going to want to travel abroad for a frivolous event.
@quitecontrary, Why? Because I think it would be a nice poke-in-the-eye to uptight, right-wing courtiers, royalists, Tory MPs, etc, that seem to have real issues with the LGBTQ community. Just like with racial discrimination, I look at the few and feeble attempts at “diversity” as performative. Especially when it seems like a day can’t go by without some tabloid article either trashing someone in the LGBTQ community or highlighting the views of odious people like JK Rowling. Besides, the Buttegeigs would do a fabulous job representing our country.
Let winners be winners. You win, you get a prize. You lose, you learn to be gracious and keep working hard. I don’t like “participation trophies”. We need to learn it’s ok to lose sometimes. We need to recognize greatness and reward it. Jill Biden over-stepped. Hopefully she learned why what she said was wrong.
The best part of this is being introduced to the wonderful Angel Reese. Her response to this Jill Biden mess was sweet. This young lady is a real one. She’s the reason I’m paying attention to women’s college basketball. 1st she’s up here with all the audacity to reject the FLOTUS non-apology apology, 2nd she was like look we can just go to the Obamas 😎😄, and 3rd she followed it up with we didn’t want to met before the game anyway because “Biden didn’t put us on the bracket to make it pass Baton Rouge, so bet”. 🙅🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️. I love it
Haha that’s awesome !
I love that she shouted out Michelle Obama and asked if they could go to HER house! That was a chef’s kiss! And to top it off, saying you didn’t believe in us so we don’t want to recognize YOU now is badass. She’s goals for me.
Yes her entire interview on this topic was chef’s kiss.
A top-tier response. She kept it real.
Calling her imsensitive as part of the problem. She’s clearly got a little Melania in her. I think she’ll fit in at the chubbly. I no longer have any confidence in the woman. And no passes for being a teacher. This means that she inflicted Racial microagressions on her students throughout the entirety of her career. That’s not applaudable or anything to be aOKKK with. This was not a mistake. This was her showing us who she is. And like-minded Angelo sad. When people show you who they are the first time talking to leave them. I will never vote for that family again. Jill Biden can KMA
I wouldn’t distance Jill Biden from this by putting her in the Melania Trump box. This kind of bias is much wider spread than just the Trump world.
@Sascha…so since FLOTUS did something stupid…You’re going to NEGATE her lifelong work which has shown NONE OF THE BIASES YOU MENTIONED…AND TRUST & BELIEVE…THAT WOULD HAVE COME OUT…and you’re going to THROW EVERYTHING AWAY and be COMPLICIT TO FASCISM…cause if you DON’T vote for Biden in 2024…that’s what you’re doing…because of something that DIDN’T EVEN HAPPEN? The Biden Administration did what they were SUPPOSED to do regarding that ill fated suggestion…but again…if the DEMOCRATS AIN’T PERFECT…it’s a problem 🙄
Wow…As a BLACK WOMAN WHO PROTECTS DEMOCRACY NO MATTER WHAT…I’ve NEVA had the luxury or AUDACITY to do that with my vote…Y’all be showing me EVERY DAY why fascism has such a STRONGHOLD on this planet 😡
I mean, damn! What Black person has ever had the luxury of voting only for “perfect”? It’s virtually always been go for the lesser of two evils. There is no luxury of voting solely on principle. Black women were for Hillary Clinton the first time too, until the Iowa Caucus let them believe that Barack Obama could win. It’s about incremental change until we have a full-on revolution again. The caucasity of feeling like you get to have perfect leaders or bust.
💯
I bet the Republicans are enjoying this, because something like this actually makes people believe she is as bad as Melania.
This is exactly why I often say that the good things Biden and Co do should be more talked about. Maybe people wouldn’t then so easily believe things like her being on the same level as Melania.
Sadly, yes. Black voters have had to compartmentalize their feelings and do what’s practical when it mattered. I mean, if they could set aside their personal opinions and vote for George Wallace for governor of Alabama years after his earlier pledge of, “Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” to show his objection to Civil Rights, then we can all do what’s best for our neighbors and this country when it matters. I never understood how some people had the courage to do that when I was younger, now I understand. As @ThatsNotOkay said, “the lesser of two evils.” So, you can just imagine how evil the other evil was to make one pull the lever for Wallace, regardless of his post-shooting stated “conversion” in ethics.
Voting for someone is not marrying them. It’s not being their friend. Harm reduction is an appropriate voting strategy.
And you sound an awful lot like the Russian bots who were telling young people not to vote in 2020 because the Democrats and Republicans were supposedly the same. I’m not saying that’s what you are. But think about it a bit.
They said that in 2016 as well.
Lots of people acting like Hillary and the Democrats were as bad as Trump and the Republicans, which no, they were not.
And we all know what happened because they were ‘too woke’ to vote.
There is nothing Melania-like about Dr. Jill Biden. NOTHING. To equate her even remotely to that lazy, scheming, disingenuous gold-digger is utter nonsense. And to equate her teaching to inflicting racist micro-aggressions is as ridiculous as your “KKK” insult. You go ahead and vote for Trump — a criminal with at least 30+ crimes facing him now that he’s been indicted, including the crime of racism against black renters in the buildings he and his father owned. I’ve read a few of your other posts and you’re either a troll or a Russian bot. I hope the administrators of this site ban you.
It wouldn’t surprise me.
Russian bots are everywhere, always working into either getting the right more angry or trying to get the left to not vote.
It was thoughtless and kind of dense what Jill did;however,would you prefer Casey DeSantis
I feel bad for the players on Iowa’s team who aren’t “white women”, getting dragged and put down and their accomplishments diminished.
I imagine the 4 nonwhite players on that team of 15 are well aware what’s directed at them and what isn’t and shouldn’t be.
In fact I’m going to rewind that and say that I feel bad for all of the Iowa players, who are young women and did not do anything wrong, and have been gracious losers. They are all getting dragged unfairly.
Yes, and the Iowa coach noped out of the invitation. The Iowa star player has been a staunch defender of the LSU team. They have been acting well through this — it is not their fault.
I’m glad the East Wing had to walk back the LSU-Iowa mess. The champions go to 1600. Not happy Dr. Biden is going to the Chubbly because the unhinged BM were demanding that if POTUS doesn’t go, FLOTUS will do. (Glad VP Harris wasn’t dragged into this.) The Fail commentariat were none to kind on this announcement. They came after her about the facinator she wore at the queen’s funeral. The BM plan on going after her for the Chubbly.
No way C-3POS wanted half-Black VP Kamala Harris at his all-white function. He probably insisted upon FLOTUS in some color-coded kind of way.
It wasn’t a “participation trophy”.
She offered a great and exclusive honor to the white team because they lost to the black team.
Y’all are just making up stories to not have to think that the nice white lady isn’t racist but she just showed you she sure is.
Thank you @TwinFalls. You are so right. Obviously I still vote Democrat, it’s the lesser of two evils. But this did not sit well with me at all. You’re right that she really revealed who she is at her core.
*Sigh* How often have Black women seen this? How often have we had to share accolades with white people just because…? Frequently in recent years we’ve seen Black valedictorians forced to share the limelight with the white runner up. Or some schools ignoring or deleting the valedictorian speeches altogether because the valedictorian is non-white. It’s akin to the angst some Caucasian people feel in the face of wealthy or accomplished Black or Brown folks: the accomplishments and success offend them because non-whites are somehow not supposed to have nice things.
I remember how upset people were when a few years ago a Black baroness was on Instagram showing off her impeccable estate in England. People everywhere lost their damn minds! How dare she!?!
I guess I’m not surprised Dr. Biden wanted to acknowledge the white team who lost. But let’s not call it “insensitivity”.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
You make great points. Also, how some (not all) White women can’t handle being around WOC who are prettier or smarter than they are. It drives them crazy.
You are absolutely right @Beverley. The field goal post always moves back when it’s our turn to kick. Some of us get shot in the leg right before we kick, and White folks get real cranky when we still score. Then they reward the Whites who almost scored a goal on both legs cause reasons (sportsmanship (because Black people who win are never good sports (eye roll), “class” (racist dog whistle), being good losers, showing character! etc.). It’s so damn exhausting.
They set the rules. When we win within the bounds of their rules, they just change the rules. Look at how many schools are doing away with standardized testing now that Black people are excelling at it as more and more Whites are caught cheating. Now all of a sudden, we don’t need the test – it’s not a measure of intelligence or whether one will succeed in college (eye roll – you already knew that, but thought Whites with all the resources, tutors, etc. would excel at that test and we would not – that’s why you had the damn thing to begin with). Now you have to find some new measure to exclude Black people and elevate Whites. Sigh…
@Side Eye I totally get your point, but those standardized tests are a scam and are horrible for BIPOC. Testing biases in questions, format, and structure have led to Black students underperforming despite skills and knowledge. Peer-Reviewed research data support that these tests are harmful to the educational growth of Black families. For a while, the idea was because of socio-economic differences; however, even when the Black demographic has the same socio-economic status as their white peers, their scores were lower. That’s how we know racial biases persist with testing. As a melanated and educated woman studying Educational Policy, I completely agree with he dismantling of testing as a requirement.
Perfect example of solidarity is for white feminists only.
iMO Dr. Biden is probably the best person to go. First Lady isn’t the same as a member of the cabinet.
I don’t think the UK is the first nation the US calls when it needs something now. The EU is there as are the individual countries. One of the issues here is that the UK is not a huge power any longer. I believe Mary Pester has made it clear that the UK military isn’t really funded appropriately so say nothing of fighting somewhere in large numbers. The economy in the UK is dismal. The Tories are doing everything they can to make it an autocracy and have a fondness for Putin. The GQP is trying to do the same in the US for the same reason.
I tend to think that Biden had no intention of going. I wonder if he intended that FLOTUS would go until his call to KFC. I think KFC is the one who wants someone from the US of “power”. Well, Dr. Jill doesn’t have power. She’s the wife of the President, though. I think that’s as far as Biden would go. No VP–nope. Just my thoughts.
I also think Biden didn’t have any intention in going and agree that even Kamala our VP isn’t going. And yes the the issue I think is that the UK isn’t a big power as they used to be, and that’s where some of the envy is. By not having the POTUS at the coronation is a big deal for them, esp for the BRM and even some in the UK as it would have given them a higher visibility . There’s hardly any news over here in the US regarding the British media making such a big fuss that the POTUS is not going. The White House and even the US media probably does not think the British Tabs and BRM are relevant to even debate about it. As they have other things of concern to worry about.
I’m not thinking that Jill was anything but well-meaning, but is this an example of unconscious bias? If Iowa had won, would she have said the same thing? If she had been at the final game, she could have congratulated both teams after the game. i’ve read some comments about the team not wanting to go now, even though the situation is corrected. Hope it’s just talk- they should be dignified and gracious about the whole thing now that the situation has been righted.
Jill Biden’s comments were very much focused on impact and benefits of Title IX as compared to prior time. That may have led her to ‘inclusive’ type comments about previously excluded groups, i.e. all women.
Anyone Calling for graciousness, gratitude, etc. on the part of the women who won the thing and then suffered racial microagressions on an international scale from their presidents wife ? Fuh OUTTA here
She deserved to be dragged. Unless I haven’t seen it, I have yet to hear of her actually acknowledging that what she did was rooted in white fragility. (Not that I actually think they’d ever use those terms)
Her team walking back her comments doesn’t really give “accountability.”
Another point of view is that Jill was attempting to show sport as it is meant to be which is winner and losers appreciating each others skills. Reconciliation and all that stuff.
the Losing team would have to watch the winners in the White House getting first place and all the media attention on them whilst they had to wait in the shadows.
I remember seeing Mrs Bush sitting in the Invictus Games whilst Michelle Obama loomed over her on the stage with Prince Harry and she looked small and a bit angry!
This is a competitive D1-level sport. This is not at all how that works. Also, listening to Jill’s original statement, she spent most of her words talking up the losers and giving the victors one sentence of a wimpy congratulations. That was poor form all the way around. LSU made history. As a majority Black team, those Black women made history, and the MVP and player with the best record were on the winning team. Those women deserved their flowers and honor.