The Difference Having a Black Boss Makes
Why Joe Biden’s work experience is so relevant to voters
It might be hard to remember given the Covid-19 pandemic, but we are still having an election this year, and Joe Biden, a 77-year-old white man, has emerged from an initially diverse field as the front-runner.
The overwhelming support of Southern black voters for Joe Biden’s presidential bid seems to have stumped many white liberals who prefer his last remaining competition, the 78-year-old Bernie Sanders. In interviews and on Twitter, pundits, politicians, and others have centered their own ideas of what is best for African American people, while shaking their heads over how they voted “against their own best interests.” New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, for one, suggested that black voters simply can’t separate Biden from Barack Obama, and support him because they only “have a certain amount of information.”
This line of thinking is blatantly patronizing. And anyhow, as Michael Harriot, a political columnist for The Root, has pointed out, “black people are not here to channel the political yearnings of white progressives.” In his February ranking of candidates’ “black agenda,” Harriot offered one possible explanation for Biden’s appeal among black voters: “Biden worked for a black boss and, as veep, he was surrounded by black…
