JOE BIDEN has talked more explicitly about racism in America in his opening weeks than any president in recent memory.

He pledged to defeat “white supremacy” in his Inaugural address. He’s talked about the “corrosive” effects of “systemic racism.” His first primetime White House speech included a denunciation of “vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans.” Last week he attacked new voter laws in Georgia as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”

Biden’s blunt talk is partly a reflection of the times. The country has begun talking more forthrightly about race in recent years, confronted by videos of police brutality against people of color and Covid-19 data that underscores yawning racial disparities. It follows that the president would talk more openly too.