Joe Biden went for a joke he shouldn’t have. He whiffed. And then he admitted he screwed it up.

The African-American community has bailed out the Democratic party again and again at the voting booths. So the surprise wasn’t that key voices in the community from Symone Sanders to Reggie Hudlin seemed largely willing to contextualize the remark, accept the apology, and move on. The surprise was that many white allies generally intent on chest-beating and virtue signaling were willing to listen…

The Tara Reade debacle also illustrates the need for nuance. One of the rallying cries of #MeToo has been “Believe all women.” But all women are not to be believed any more than all men are. To suggest that females are magical truth-telling creatures isn’t just insulting; it’s objectifying.

And of course the leaders of #MeToo knew that.