Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden faces new scrutiny over how he discusses race and ethnicity after drawing distinctions between Black and Hispanic populations in the United States.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden faces new scrutiny over how he discusses race and ethnicity after drawing distinctions between Black and Hispanic populations in the United States. « By the way, what you all know but most people don’t know, unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things, » Biden said to a Latina reporter from National Public Radio in an interview released Thursday. « You go to Florida, » Biden continued, « you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you’re in Arizona. So it’s a very different, very diverse community. » In a series of apologetic tweets late Thursday, Biden tried to clarify his comments. « In no way did I mean to suggest the African American community is a monolith – not by identity, not on issues, not at all. » Biden’s observation, part of a series of interviews with Black and Hispanic journalists, came during a back-and-forth over U. S.-Cuba policy. The former vice president was alluding to the dozens of national origins that make up the U. S. Hispanic population, especially in Florida, a presidential battleground. President Donald Trump seized on Biden’s remarks, declaring them « very insulting. » He later tweeted that « Joe Biden just lost the entire African American community. » Symone Sanders, a top Biden adviser said, « The video that is circulating is conveniently cut to make this about racial diversity, but that’s not the case. » The potential fallout is nonetheless frustrating for Democrats, for whom the stakes magnify with every Biden slip, real or perceived. « People are going to use this, particularly Joe Biden’s adversaries.
