In his 2007 autobiography, ‘Promises to Keep,’ he writes: “A few of my colleagues pulled me aside to ask how and when the racists had gotten to me.” Overall he hasn’t been completely anti-African American but in the 1970’s involving bussing, that was the first time he got into conflict with the local NAACP group. When interviewed by the New York Times he said:
Mr. Biden also angered white parents by saying that he would support using federal helicopters if the city’s schools could not be integrated any other way. “I couldn’t live that comment down for years,” he said in the interview.I found his comment from the interview to be quite racist personally only because he rushed right for the most radically possible way instead of taking the time to think through all his possible options. However, the worst possible situation was concerning the nomination of Justice Thomas, the second African-American on the Supreme Court which he considered an 'incendiary bomb' ready to go off. But there was the question of how fair the testimony was during the hearing because Biden is blamed for limiting questions on Thomas's private life.
What I am left with his wondering if Senator Biden, who will become the official Vice President if Obama gets elected in November will continue to have these small issues with members of minorities or will he be forgiven for his past record.“I don’t go as far as Clarence,” Mr. Danforth said. “I don’t think he was the leader of the lynch mob. I think what he was the park superintendent at the site at which the lynching took place.”
Mr. Biden said only, “That was a very controversial nomination.”
3 comments:
What's racist about supporting desegregation of schools? Or did I misinterpret what you were trying to say?
You were misinterpreting what I was saying. I was trying to explain Biden's radical approach to the issue of bussing. I know, it might have not been written to show that properly. The article explains it more in depth.
I completely agree that it is vitally important for the president and vice president to be on good terms with minority groups, but I feel that the issue you refer to about bussing is rather out dated. A lot has changed since then and I feel that, if his questionable comments had been made more recently then this would be more of an issue, but since they date back to the 1970's I feel like their relevance is somewhat reduced.
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