Joe Biden, once again, disappointed many of the same Black
voters who were his strongest supporters. How much of this can or should Black
people stand?
اضافة اعلان
I always have to start columns like this with an upfront
stipulation: Having Biden in the White House is exponentially better than
having four more years of Donald Trump, and in a two-party system, you must
support one of the two parties’ candidates. Protest abstentions are suicidal.
Democrats who at least talk a more racially inclusive game are head and
shoulders above Republicans who either court or abide open racists.
It’s not that Biden hasn’t advanced policies that benefit the
African American community, efforts that the White House is quick to laud — as
it should — when he faces criticism.
With that out of the way, there is still an appraisal of
Biden at this point in his presidency — specifically as it relates to Black
voters — that isn’t kind.
The latest offense was the administration’s disastrous
mishandling of the Haitian migrant crisis at the southern border.
Yes, there were the outrageous images of agents on horseback
herding the migrants like cattle, and there was also the administration
aggressively deporting the migrants back to Haiti.
When I see those Black bodies at the border, I am unable to
separate them from myself, or my family, or my friends. They are us. There is a
collective consciousness in blackness, born of the white supremacist erasure of
our individuality.
Your accomplishment is never your own but a credit to the
race. Your sins are never your own but a stain on the race. In America, and
throughout the diaspora, all Black people are linked together like a chain of
paper dolls.
So it has been incredibly painful to witness the treatment
of the Haitians, and it has been impossible not to recoil in disgust or burn
with outrage. And to think, “This is happening on Joe Biden’s watch.”
When it was reported that then-President Trump called Haiti
a shithole country, Biden responded on Twitter saying:
“It’s not how a president should speak. It’s not how a
president should behave. Most of all, it’s not what a president should believe.
We’re better than this.”
But deporting these Haitians is worse, not better. The Biden
administration — and Democrats in general — always seem to say the right things
on racial issues, but too often their deeds come up short when measured against
their talk.
As a justification for many of the deportations, the Biden
administration invoked Title 42, which is a law that allows deportations based
on supposed “health risks.” The Associated Press pointed out, “The Trump
administration invoked it in March 2020 to sweeping effect, prohibiting entry
by virtually anyone from Mexico and Canada and essentially sealing the northern
and southern borders.” Isn’t that ironic.
What’s more, these particular migrants were being deported
to a country many haven’t been to in years. Many of them didn’t leave Haiti in
2021; they left it years ago. And they were being deported into danger. Haiti
has recently been devastated by an earthquake, flooding from a hurricane and
the assassination of the president.
The administration’s own special envoy to Haiti resigned Thursday,
refusing to be part of the administration’s “inhumane” expulsions regime,
citing the fact that Haiti is so dangerous right now that even “American
officials are confined to secure compounds because of the danger posed by armed
gangs to daily life.”
And yet the Biden administration refused to give any
indication that it would stop invoking Title 42, The Washington Post reported
Friday.
It seems to me that Biden tried to simultaneously eliminate
the horrible optics the migrants present, and to do so as quickly as possible,
and at the same time blunt the already loud criticism from Republicans that he
is mishandling immigration and has an open-borders policy. (No wonder, then,
that the migrant encampment beneath the Del Rio bridge has already been cleared.)
But those Republicans cannot be appeased. No matter what
direction Biden takes, they will condemn it. So why not take the moral path,
the righteous path, the ethical path?
The Haitian migrant crisis came as negotiations over federal
police reform have collapsed and a law guaranteeing federal voting protections
is still bogged down in Congress.
At a certain point, words ring hollow, even when they are
the right words. At a certain point, success in one area fails to cover
deficiencies in another.
The Biden administration’s handling of the Haitians was just
wrong. It was also heartbreaking and disgusting.
No White House fact sheet about other policies that
benefited Black people can cover that stain. These Black people were treated
like animals because Biden was afraid of a Washington full of monsters.
As is too often the case, Black people become the political
pawn, a weight around the ankle or a weapon in the hand. Our humanity is
reduced to a calculation or a cause. We can be chased down by horseback-riding
agents or flown out by weak-kneed presidents.
After Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election,
the Rev. Al Sharpton recalled for The Washington Post last week, he said,
“‘Black America, you had my back, I’ll have yours.’” Sharpton continued: “Well,
we’re being stabbed in the back, Mr. President. We need you to stop the
stabbing — from Haiti to Harlem.”
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