More Joe Biden racial views - Page 4

EvanJC · #31 10-25-2007, 09:58 PM

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Democratic Senator and Presidential candidate Joe Biden has made some interesting remarks lately on racial/ethnic issues. In a Washington Post interview today, he commented on why test scores for students in Iowa are higher than in Washington D.C. The reason according to Biden: "There's less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."

Is Biden saying that areas with white students are just naturally going to have higher test scores than areas with a lot of minorities? Apparently his staff realized that this sounded bad. After the interview, they released a statement trying to explain that Senator Biden was not really referring to race as an issue in the test scores.

Earlier in the campaign Biden commented on Senator Obama. He was so impressed with a black candidate who was "clean and articulate."

Earlier this year he made a remark about not being able to "go into a 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts without an Indian accent."

Do I think Joe Biden is a racist? No. I think he simply has had a bad habit of using a poor choice of words. Considering others in public life have faced serious negative consequences for a poor choice of words, I wonder if this will ever catch up to Biden? Or will he generally always get the benefit of the doubt.

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PAGING LEFT-WINGERS: ANOTHER EXPLANATION NEEDED.

Please provide the appropriate spin.

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No spin required, Biden is a racist moron. Just like the right shouldn't be judged that harshly b/c of a few religious nut cases who troll for dick in men's bathrooms, the left shouldn't be judged b/c of this fool.

EvanJC · #32 10-25-2007, 10:01 PM

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"There's less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."

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I don't see anything racist about this. "What you start off with, what you're dealing with" implies, to me, that he is referencing that minorities are frequently coming from financially disadvantged families, unable to afford good education, tutors, etc, and therefore are less able to score well on tests.

Nothing racist about it. And I'm a Ron Paul supporter. I think all these claims that these people are racist are really stupid.

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What? I read your explaination, and I'm still confused. Sure, it would have been fine if he had caveated, but he didn't.

Taso · #33 10-25-2007, 10:08 PM

Okay. Just to clarify, you are saying "had he given the explantion you gave in your post, I wouldn't think it was racist" ?

(I've only actually heard the word "caveat" used mabey two or three times, and one of those times was in a Seinfeld episode, so I just want to be sure I'm understanding its usage)

EvanJC · #34 10-25-2007, 10:15 PM

First of all, I think that Joe Biden is, in all likelyhood, a racist person. So what he says and how he says it probably doesn't really matter.

However, in this case, if he had been more careful about explaining the reasons why blacks tend to do worse on standardized testing that this particular statement would have come off as less racist.

jogsxyz · #35 10-25-2007, 10:19 PM

What is racism? Are we all speaking in the same wavelength?

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...defines racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, AND that it is also the prejudice based on such a belief.

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Thinking you're better is okay as long as you don't act on it.

Taso · #36 10-25-2007, 10:33 PM

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"There's less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is African American. There is probably less than 4 or 5 percent that are minorities. What is in Washington? So look, it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."

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I don't see anything racist about this. "What you start off with, what you're dealing with" implies, to me, that he is referencing that minorities are frequently coming from financially disadvantged families, unable to afford good education, tutors, etc, and therefore are less able to score well on tests.

Nothing racist about it. And I'm a Ron Paul supporter. I think all these claims that these people are racist are really stupid.

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What? I read your explaination, and I'm still confused. Sure, it would have been fine if he had caveated, but he didn't.

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I really don't think the explanation I gave was neccesary. To anyone who knows about black history and the problems blacks have (ie, blacks), what I wrote is simply common sense. I'm surprised people DON'T know that blacks tend to be less financially secure, less able to afford good education.

Taso · #37 10-25-2007, 10:35 PM

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What is racism? Are we all speaking in the same wavelength?

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...defines racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, AND that it is also the prejudice based on such a belief.

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Thinking you're better is okay as long as you don't act on it.

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And I don't think this is a case of assuming one race has better traits or better genes than other. I'm sure statistics would back up what I'm saying; it's not just an opinion thing.

adanthar · #38 10-25-2007, 10:47 PM

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I really don't think the explanation I gave was neccesary. To anyone who knows about black history and the problems blacks have (ie, blacks), what I wrote is simply common sense. I'm surprised people DON'T know that blacks tend to be less financially secure, less able to afford good education.

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Yeah, except that's not what Biden said. Removing the extraneous "Iowa has less blacks than DC" part, this is what he actually said:

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There's less than 1 percent of the population of Iowa that is African American...it goes back to what you start off with, what you're dealing with."

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This is not merely "blacks are less able to afford good education". It's not even close.

AngusThermopyle · #39 10-26-2007, 12:54 AM

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"When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there's no books, where the mother from the time they're born doesn't talk to them -- as opposed to the mother in Iowa who's sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom," Biden said.

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Would be nice if someone would include the rest of his statement.

EvanJC · #40 10-26-2007, 06:16 AM

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What is racism? Are we all speaking in the same wavelength?

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...defines racism as a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race, AND that it is also the prejudice based on such a belief.

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Thinking you're better is okay as long as you don't act on it.

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You're right, racism is an amazingly complicated issue and there are a million shades of gray.

I would argue that thinking you're better than another person b/c of racial factors is not okay (although I hate this word here), even if you don't act on it.