This week, Joe Biden sat down with radio host Rickey Smiley, who asked the president point-blank what he had “done to improve the lives of African Americans.” The first thing the president thought of was his efforts to scrub their criminal convictions from the public record.
“For example,” Biden said, “too many African Americans were denied everything from Pell Grants, student loans, housing, etc. because they were arrested for possession of marijuana, many too many.” To be sure, Biden added, his pardoning of Americans convicted of federal marijuana possession charges affects “whites as well.” But the fact that criminality was, as Karine Jean-Pierre would say, “top of mind” when the president was asked about the black experience wouldn’t have escaped the notice of those who police covert racism if a similar statement had been uttered by a Republican. Indeed, if it had been said by Joe Biden circa 2019, it would have fueled a national news cycle akin to those that erupted around the efficacy of forced busing and Biden’s relationship with the segregationists in his caucus.
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