Biden’s Racial Condescension: The Left Reacts
John McIntyre highlights some of the reaction to Joe Biden’s “he’s so articulate!” gaffe re: Barack Obama from the left’s leading blogging lights. Short version: I predict Biden will be forced to make some sort of public apology…
UPDATE 4:15 p.m.: From the “remove the log from thin own eye” department…
No one has caught this yet, but I made the same gaffe Biden did (though, of course, to a much smaller audience) when I did my initial candidate profile of Obama. In fact, I nearly used the same words:
Obama is an attractive candidate – good-looking, articulate, smooth, polite, intelligent – all of these adjectives can be applied to him without fear of contradiction…
Does that mean I think I’m wrong to write off Biden’s comments as a racially insensitive gaffe?
No.
It means I made the same mistake he did – looking back at my comments, they, too, smack of racial condescension. Though I’m sure Biden didn’t mean it that way, and I know I didn’t, the comment doesn’t sit right.
So, let me set a good example:
Rereading my comments, given the long history of adjectives such as ‘articulate’ in relation to black candidates (the implication being, “He’s so articulate…for a black man“), I apologize for what was a most unfortunate choice of words that, however unintentional, can be viewed as racially-suspect patronizing.
Lesson learned…
[...] When I spoke of Joe Biden’s gaffe, unlike many who focused on the ‘clean’ bit, I focused on ‘articulate’, and even on my own similar words, because it struck me that this has nearly always been a backhanded complement when applied to black public figures. Eugene Robinson confirms my thesis in the Washington Post (I quote at more length than I’m usually comfortable with because I think Robinson is quite, um, eloquent on the subject): There was a sharp reaction [to Biden’s comments], mostly focused on Biden’s incomprehensible reference to personal hygiene. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a one-time presidential candidate, said that when Biden called him to apologize, ” I told him I take a bath every day.” [...]