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Speaking to some reporters on Tuesday, former Vice President Joe Biden, now a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, said, “White folks are the reason we have institutional racism. There has always been racism in America. White supremacists have always existed, they still exist.”
And, in a Biden administration, this would “not be tolerated.”
Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, largely because of black voters, and apparently wants to double-down on this appeal to increase his chances of actually capturing the Democratic nomination, and to drive turnout among the African-American community in the 2020 general election against President Donald Trump. Biden was actually quite blunt about his motivation, telling reporters that increasing the voter turnout among both blacks and Hispanics will be the “overwhelming focus” of his campaign strategy.
One of the reasons that 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lost Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania to Donald Trump — all states won by President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 — was that she failed to generate much enthusiasm in the African-American community, and turnout was down from the previous two presidential campaigns. Biden intends to do what he can to do much better among black Democrats than did Clinton.
Because of this race-based strategy, Biden promised to advertise in black publications, campaign in black churches, in black fraternities and sororities, and at historically black colleges.
It is Trump that Biden blames for rising racial tensions in the country over the past few years, claiming that Trump’s words have stoked the racial divide. According to Biden, Trump’s rhetoric has an “appeal to the worst damn instincts of human nature.”
In contrast to Trump, Biden said, “I’ve never, ever, ever in my entire life been in a circumstance where I’ve felt uncomfortable being in the black community.” Biden added that many make “assertions and assumptions” about black voters that are not accurate, because “a lot of people haven’t spent much time in the [black] community.”
This support that Biden has enjoyed among black voters is assumed to be the reason that Senator Kamala Harris — the California Democrat who is one of Biden’s competitors for the Democratic nod — launched an assault upon Biden during the first presidential debate over his decades-old opposition to school busing. Harris, who is black, evidently believed that Biden’s opposition to school busing, ordered by federal judges to forcibly integrate public schools, would enable her to take some of those black voters away from Biden.
During the debate, Harris coupled her attack on Biden over busing with, “I know you’re not a racist, Joe,” which, of course, was an attempt to plant the idea in the minds of voters that Biden actually was a racist, or at least was not the champion of black voters that he is portraying himself to be.
The Trump presidential campaign shot back at Biden. Tim Murtaugh, the Trump campaign communications director, dismissed Biden’s charges that Trump uses racist rhetoric as politically motivated. “Having moved on from the Russia Hoax, Democrats are now employing the oldest play in the Democrat playbook: falsely accusing their opponents of racism, extending it even to the president’s supporters. Calling half the country racist is not a winning strategy.”
It is certainly not a healthy move for the country. It is widely believed that race relations were at their best in American history when Obama won the White House in 2008 — after all, the election of a black man to the presidency would have been unthinkable only a few short years earlier. Many hoped, even those who disagreed strongly with Obama’s political philosophy, that his election marked a moment of healing for the country.
But, once in office, Obama and Biden continued to use the “race card” in a callous effort to make sure that the percentage of black voter turnout — the highest in history in 2008 — would not fall off. During his time in office, Obama made public comments about an altercation in Florida between a “white Hispanic” man and a black teenager (Trayvon Martin), in which the teen was killed. “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon,” Obama opined, clearly exacerbating racial feelings in the incident. There were other incidents in which it became clear that Obama and Biden were determined to throw gasoline on the fire, all for political advantage.
Because of this, we have seen a definite decline in healthy racial relations over the past decade. Accusations of racism are routinely thrown at political opponents, with little regard as to the negative consequences for race relations.
Now it appears that Biden is prepared to continue this campaign strategy of inciting hatred by one ethnic group against another. While it might be unhealthy for the country, he evidently believes it might win him the White House.
Photo: Gage Skidmore / flickr.com
Steve Byas is a university history instructor. He can be contacted at [email protected]
