On the question of whether Biden is actually racist or not...
I found this on Reddit. I haven't verified any of it, but much of it is generally commonly known. Some of it are stretches and I removed one or two points that are more political criticisms, though I left in one or two things that aren't really racially related. But much of this is certainly worth noting.
I believe there were originally links but I don't think they copied over.
Joe Biden’s Racism throughout his Political Career
-“If you have a
problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black”
-“
Poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids”. He then pauses, then attempts to cover his comment by adding “wealthy kids, Black kids, Asian kids...”
-Stated that
no racist had been elected President until President Trump. He’s hiding well over a century of racism in Presidential history...
This means he refuses to acknowledge:
•The Trail of Tears (Jackson Administration)
•Segregation of the Federal Government (Wilson Administration)
•Japanese Internment Camps (D. Roosevelt Administration)
•Countless racist comments by Presidents (Nixon, Wilson, Lyndon Johnson, etc)
•Obstruction of the passage of the 14th and 15th amendments (Andrew Johnson Administration)
•And sadly, tons more.
-As a senator, he was anti de-segregation, going as far as to state that he didn’t want his kids to grow up in a “
racial jungle”.
-On the topic of pandering, in 1987
he bragged that in regards to the citizens of Delaware,
“We were on the South’s side in the Civil War”. If you believe the Civil War was mainly fought over slavery, then it’s clear that at this point in time he was proud of their beliefs. Of course,
Delaware actually wasn’t on the South’s side; it was one several slave states that sided with the Union. (
)
-To once again pander to voters,
he stated that he has “a record that is second to none”, since “the NAACP’s endorsed [him] every time [he’s] run”. The
NAACP outed this as a lie, emphasizing that they never endorse political candidates for office. After all, they are “the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization”.
-Lied
that he did sit-ins, civil
rights marches, and similar practices prior to his first presidential run, to once again pander to voters.
•Right before withdrawing from the ‘88 presidential race, he
confessed that he “was not an activist“, and “was not out marching...not down in Selma...[&] was not anywhere else.”
•He would then repeat these lies in
2017 and
2020, stating that he did “sit-ins and desegregated restaurants”, even though decades earlier he admitted that he didn’t.
-Referencing Obama,
he said, "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy”.
-
Stated that "In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."
-According to
The Washington Post, Biden spoke “out repeatedly and forcefully against sending white children to majority-black schools and black children to majority-white schools. He played down the persistence of overt racism and suggested that the government should have a limited role in integration.”
-
Worked closely with and
complimented segregationists during his tenure in Congress, including James Eastland
•
Drafted anti-busing legislation with the support of Senator Eastland (which according to the New York Times, “was far more sweeping than he has led voters to believe”).
•
Complemented Senator Eastland on numerous occasions
•Referred to his work with Eastland, Talmadge, and other segregationists as having a presence of “civility”—essentially using cooperation with segregationists as an example of bringing the country together. To make matters worse, he did so on the Eve of Juneteenth.
-In 1975, he
went so far as to say that "I think the Democratic Party could stand a liberal George Wallace — someone who's not afraid to stand up and offend people, someone who wouldn't pander but would say what the American people know in their gut is right”. Alabama Governor George Wallace was described by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 as “perhaps the most dangerous racist in America today”.
•Of course, Biden twelve years later in 1987 bragged about receiving an award from Governor Wallace, and didn’t hesitate to share that the Governor called him “one of the most outstanding young politicians of America”. This was during Biden’s campaign for President of the United States.
-In 1975
stated that busing was “a rejection of the whole movement of black pride”.
-Claimed he was
arrested in South Africa while trying to see Nelson Mandela. The Washington Post ran a
fact check and determined there was no evidence that this even occurred.
-In 2016, Biden
called ex-Senator John Stennis an “honorable” man, and felt the need to express that Stennis supported him in his 1988 race. Senator Stennis was a hardcore segregationist and a signer of the Southern Manifesto.
-Voted
towards passing the Comprehensive Crime Control Act and supported provisions which abolished parole, limited “good time” sentence reductions, and allowed the Sentencing Commission be more strict in decisions. These provisions disproportionally affected minority communities.
-Voted to
protect segregated schools’ tax-exemption status
-In 1975,
voted to restore Confederate Robert E. Lee’s US citizenship
-In 1993, he called those who fly the Confederate flag “
fine people”.
-Stated
in June 2019 that “We've got to recognize that kid wearing a hoodie may very well be the next poet laureate and not a gangbanger."
-With Strom Thurmond,
attempted to raise maximum penalties and remove a directive requiring the US Sentencing Commission to take into account prison capacity. Thankfully these measures, designed to disproportionally affect minority communities, failed.
-When asked “what responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?” at the September 12, 2019 Democratic debate, he
responded by shifting the conversation to education and stating that:
•Parents don’t know how to raise their children (“We bring social workers into homes of parents to help them deal with how to raise their children. It’s not that they don’t want to help, they don’t want — they don’t know quite what to do.)
•Parents should “have the record player on at night” (in addition to the radio and television, but assuming that minority families use record players is disrespectful)
•”a kid coming from a very poor school—a very poor background—will hear 4 million words fewer spoken by the time they get there”.
•”Make sure that every single child does, does in fact, have 3, 4 and 5 year-olds go to school. Not day care, school.”
-
Implied that people of color can’t read
-At a 2012 Virginia rally, he
made the remark to a diverse crowd that if his opponent (Mitt Romney) won, Romney would “put you all back in chains”.
-In March of 2020, he started reciting the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, but instead of saying that “all men are created equal”, he
replaced “equal” with “you know the thing.”
-He
made derogatory assumptions about African American men and women, and mentioned “the black sections” of his town. In June 2007, Biden remarked that he “spent last summer going through the black sections of my town holding rallies in parks trying to get black men to understand it’s not unmanly to wear a condom. Getting women to understand they can say no. Getting people in the position where testing matters. I got tested for AIDS. I know Barack [Obama] got tested for AIDS. There’s no shame in being tested for AIDS”.
-
In 1993, Biden warned of “predators on our streets” who were “beyond the pale” and stated they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system had no idea how to rehabilitate them.
-As a senator in 1974, Biden referred to himself as “
like the token black or the token woman”
-And now this instance today.
“What most people don’t know—unlike the African-American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community. With incredibly different attitudes about different things. You go to Florida and you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you are in Arizona.”
