Derecka Purnell: Black Americans are in an abusive relationship with the Democratic party
I am very tired of Joe
Biden. My vote for him was already hanging by a thread before his
disastrous interview with Charlamagne tha God on Friday. Interrupting
the Breakfast Club host’s explanation that black people needed assurances that
our communities will benefit from his presidency, Biden asserted: “If you’ve
got a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t
black.”
Again, I am very tired
of Joe Biden.
Not because I am a purist, or have inflexible ideological commitments of what
it will take to remove Donald Trump from office. But rather because Biden’s
condescension towards black communities is intolerable. I want to believe that
Biden’s condescension started after the respected senator James
Clyburn called the former vice-president an “honorary black man” at a
private dinner in March. But his mistreatment of black people, verbally and
politically, is decades old, and is a reflection of the Democratic party in
general.
Throughout Biden’s
career, he has boasted about his ability to bridge partisan divides by
sacrificing the needs of black people and poor people in the name of
“compromise”. For the last 30 years, Biden has repeatedly talked about
freezing, cutting, or raising the age for social security and other benefits –
as much as $2tn one time. His
response to concerns that these cuts would hurt the poor? “We’re going
to do lots of hard things … we might as well do this.”...