Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden unbosomed himself of another laugher yesterday during a rap session with two journalism outfits whose membership is based on race.
Speaking during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanics Journalists, Biden told his interlocutor, in so many words, that blacks are all alike and can’t really think for themselves. But Hispanics, he said, hold myriad opinions and aren’t all alike.
Undoubtedly, the campaign staffers and Biden propagandizers in the media who didn’t face-palm likely need smelling salts. It was yet another gaffe from a candidate already wounded by allegations, early in the campaign, that he was a closet racist because he was bosom buddies with so-called Southern segregationists and opposed forced busing. In May, he said blacks who vote for President Trump aren’t black.
The garrulous gaffer apologized, but the damage was done.
Question: Did Biden reveal what he really thinks?
Biden’s Remark
Biden was answering a question from journalist Lulu-Garcia Navarro, who asked the near-octogenarian whether he would “re-engage with Cuba,” given that some Hispanic Floridians are upset that U.S. immigration policy treats Cubans and Venezuelans differently.
“Yes,” Biden said.
And then came the thigh slapper:
What you all know, and what most people don’t know, is that unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly diverse attitudes about different things. You go to Florida, you find a very different attitude about immigration than you do in Arizona. So it’s a very diverse community.
At least Biden didn’t add that all blacks look alike to him.
Later, “only moments after his campaign responded to POLITICO on his interview,” the webzine reported, “Biden again contrasted Latino and Black Americans — this time explicitly on the topic of national and cultural origin.”
Biden elaborated on his anthropological analysis:
We can build a new administration that reflects the full diversity of our nation. The full diversity of the Latino communities. Now when I mean full diversity, unlike African American community, many other communities, you’re from everywhere. From Europe. From the tip of South America, all the way to our border and Mexico and in the Caribbean. And different backgrounds, different ethnicities, but all Latinos.
Understandably, Biden and his handlers had to come up with an apology. “Earlier today, I made some comments about diversity in the African American and Latino communities that I want to clarify,” Biden tweeted. “In no way did I mean to suggest the African American community is a monolith — not by identity, not on issues, not at all.”
Continued Sleepy Joe:
Throughout my career I’ve witnessed the diversity of thought, background, and sentiment within the African American community. It’s this diversity that makes our workplaces, communities, and country a better place.
My commitment to you is this: I will always listen, I will never stop fighting for the African American community and I will never stop fighting for a more equitable future.
A History of Gaffes
Biden’s apology and explanation that he didn’t really mean to say all blacks think alike are all well and good, but he said nearly the same thing in May.
During an interview with a fellow with the inexplicable moniker “Charlamagne Tha God,” who is unrelated as far as we know to Charlemagne the Holy Roman Emperor, Biden said much the same thing he said yesterday.
Except that he was more to the point. When Biden tried to end the interview, and Mr. God said he had more questions, and “you can’t do that black media,” Biden replied that he most certainly could and would do that to black and other media when his wife says it’s time to go.
Then he added this: “Well, I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”
Biden history of making inappropriate remarks about blacks and other races is a long one. As he was about to announce his candidacy for president in 2008, he offered this opinion about then-rival Barack Hussein Obama: “You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Obama was happy to learn that his personal hygiene had Biden’s approval.
During a campaign stop in Delaware in 2006, Biden tried to explain his warm friendship with the Indian-American community, meaning Indians from Bombay not from a reservation in South Dakota. “I’ve had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”
Photo: EduardHarkonen / iStock / Getty Images Plus
