Joe Biden's Endless Search for the Middle on Race

[loyalsister]

32. 50 years?

Joe was caught up in the 2000s The conversation on race changed most significantly in the last 10 years. And he has not caught up.
He doesn't even seem to understand how it has changed. Those of us who saw the shift (or grew up with it) have been comfortable with the polite, tempered racism of the 70s - early 2000s. When Mitch McConnell was known to have marched for Civil Rights. And white people agreed to not be so mean, pass some legislation and return to conditions of civility. And white people would make no more demands for steps towards dismantling institutional racism.
Then came 2009 and we discovered that the polite agreement was masking the hate that had been there all along. Congress let their inner bigots loose and millions of white people followed suit. As they accumulated, we also began to have a closer view of police killing unarmed people of color.
Things never really changed the way we thought. I have to wonder if James O Eastland would be pleased to know know that.
Biden is among many who have a lot of catching up to do. The harsh reality is that he was a player in the agreement to look away and be quiet and allow hate to hide.
He is the first to admit it and it is not an attack or a smear to see a problem with going back to the polite agreement.