When Joe Biden gave a paean to bipartisanship by invoking his ability to work with segregationists, I thought it was a gaffe, a poor choice of example perhaps but certainly not any effort to praise the racist attitudes of Senators James O. Eastland of Mississippi and Herman E. Talmadge of Georgia.
When Cory Booker criticized his comments and suggested that an apology was in order, Biden balked. “Apologize for what?” he said, and suggested that it was Booker who should apologize to him. It bothered me to see Biden double down, and I wondered whether he wasn’t looking for something of his own Sister Souljah moment where he could appeal to white voters who feel aggrieved at being confronted with their white privilege, who feel that they are the victims when they are called out for racist comments or attitudes. His reaction bothered me, but again, I was still ready to treat it as a misstep, perhaps a product of being too stubborn or simply too unaware of the racial sensitivities he was triggering.
When he was again called out on those comments by Kamala Harris on the debate stage last night, with the added critique of his position at that time on the issue of federally-required busing to integrate schools, he claimed he was being misrepresented and invoked local control as the reason for his position. Yes, he went there: local control.
At this point, I can no longer give Joe Biden the benefit of the doubt. Local control and states rights have long been excuses used by racists to block efforts at using federal authority to ensure the civil rights of minorities. Biden is a seasoned pol who lived through those battles, knows that history, and knows the echoes he is stirring when he speaks about local control. I do not believe it was a gaffe or a misstatement and I will call it what I believe it is: a dog whistle. The fact that this has emerged through confrontations with both of the African-American Senators running against him reinforces that belief. It saddens me to believe this of “Uncle Joe,” a leader for whom I (like many Democrats, I think) feel a real sense of affection. But I do believe it.
Obviously, Joe Biden is light years better on every issue, including racial justice, than the white-supremacist-in-chief sitting in the Oval Office currently. And I believe he would work to improve the deplorable policies and practices that are being advanced by Trump and his racism whisperer Stephen Miller. But at this point it truly seems that he is trying to use dog-whistle comments — referencing segregationists, his reaction to Booker, his appeal to local control — as an oblique signal that he is an acceptable Democractic choice for those primary voters who are uncomfortable with the increasingly multi-cultural face of the Democratic party and the growing demands for greater racial justice as a stronger part of the party’s agenda. It is a risky tactic given the importance of African-American votes in winning the nomination (not to mention the general election), but he may feel inoculated against the issue by virtue of having served as VP under our nation’s first black President.
While it remains early in the race, I had been leaning toward Elizabeth Warren as my preferred candidate, with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden as others deserving serious consideration (and an open mind on some others whom I want to learn more about, like Buttigieg, Inslee and Castro). His use of what I now believe to be dog whistle messaging to appeal to racist voters has disqualified Biden in my book. I will not vote for him in the primary.
And I hope that whatever political calculus may have led him — a man that I do not believe is overtly racist at all — to use those dog whistles proves to have been a grave mistake. I hope that while racist tropes are candy to Trump’s GOP base, they will prove to be toxic to a candidate within our party’s primary. This should be the beginning of the end of Biden’s final race for the Presidency.