VP Joe Biden’s Racial Remarks Need an Apology, Not More Excuses.

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(ThyBlackMan.com) President Barack Obama is defending VPJoe Biden’s recent and most controversial remarks. In reference to Republican deregulation, Joe Biden said that Republicans are seeking to “put ya’ll back in chains,” an obvious reference to slavery.  With an audience that has quite a few African Americans in it, those words can be interpreted in a number of interesting ways.  We know that most black people will gladly support their favorite Democrat, in many cases, not even looking at the policies.  But must we get the black vote by conveniently referencing the most traumatic experience in African American history?

President Obama stood firmly with his Democratic partner, explaining away Joe Biden’s remarks (as he typically does).  The president says that Joe Biden was simply trying to make his point about the importance of strong financial market regulation.

In no sense was he trying to connote something other than that,” Obama said.

I was saddened that the president is unable and unwilling to see Biden’s statement for what it was:  A misguided and insensitive remark from an old white guy who doesn’t understand that slavery was very painful for our ancestors.  Slavery was our holocaust and is in no way comparable to the consequences we might experience with Republican deregulation.  When  talking about the things that will get you back into office, you shouldn’t make comparisons with September 11th (which Joe Biden would not) and you shouldn’t use analogies that reference slavery.  Some experiences in history should not be politicized for your own personal benefit, and President Obama knows it.

But perhaps the reason President Obama is hesitant to hold Joe Biden accountable for his blatant racial disrespect is because he’s accepted the role as Joe Biden’s in-house negro apologist. After all, Biden has referenced President Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.”  So, given that Barack is the first bright, clean and articulate black man he’s ever seen, that could explain why Biden’s boy in the White House gives him a pass, even when he slaps his heritage square in the face with a set of remarks he wouldn’t dare repeat to any other Democratic constituency.

You think I’m full of it?  Well, here’s a test for President Obama.  I would like for him to send Joe Biden to speak to a group of female sexual assault victims, and tell the women that by not properly regulating Wall Street, Republicans are going to “rape them all over again.”

After that, I’d like for him to speak to the Anti-Defamation League, which represents the Jewish community, and say “Republicans are going to put y’all back in concentration camps.”

In his next speech, Joe Biden should go to a group of Hispanics and say, “They’re going to treat you like you’re an illegal alien who’s been detained while trying to cross the political border.”

Finally, he should send Biden to a group of gay constituents and let him say, “Republicans are going to bend you over and screw you with no Vaseline and beat you like the bullies did in high school.”

If Joe Biden can go into those venues and make those remarks while still having the comments written off as harmless by our first black president, then I’ll be convinced that we might have some semblance of equality.  The fact is that there are times when an apology is called for and this is one of them.  By refusing to apologize for Biden’s remarks, the Obama Administration is effectively minimizing the relevance of African American sensitivities and telling black people that they should simply get over it.

There is no other way to interpret this hypocrisy, and those excusing every ounce of BS coming out of the Obama Administration are as ignorant as the housewife who refuses to watch videotaped evidence that her husband is sleeping with the neighbor.  Supporting Obama is one thing, but excusing every ignorant remark by Democrat leaders is another.  This paternalistic racism being thrust by the Democratic Party is no different from the way a pimp claims to love a prostitute.  A benevolent pimp might say, “because I care about you, I can call you a b*tch without apologizing and you have no right to be upset about it.  Don’t bite the hand that feeds you b*tch.”

Anything short of an apology proves the obvious: That the disrespect of black people doesn’t matter to Democrats and that a powerful white Democrat can say damn near anything to us, knowing that no black politician in the White House is ever going to stand up to him.  If Biden were a black man making all of these irresponsible remarks, he’d be out on his butt no matter how clean and articulate he might be.

Perhaps we aren’t being respected because we simply don’t demand it.   Joe Biden was wrong and he owes African Americans an apology.  If he were to say something similar to any other group of constituents, his hat would be in his hand and he’d be back-pedaling. Black people must learn to stop excusing ignorance and disrespect, even when it comes from our so-called friends.

Staff Writer; Dr. Boyce Watkins
 
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For more information, please visit http://BoyceWatkins.com.