The Fox and The Wolf: Thoughts on Joe Biden’s Gaffe in Light of Malcolm X’s Birthday
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When I read about Joe Biden’s latest gaffe, I couldn’t help but chuckle. It would all be so sad if it weren’t so predictable. It brings to mind some words from Malcolm X, which is timely given that last week (May 19th) marked Malcolm X’s 95th birthday.
Happy Birthday, Malcolm X!
Malcolm X was frequently critical of white liberals. He often said that, while white conservatives were “growling wolves” in their open antagonism of blacks campaigning for their rights, white liberals were foxes. Malcolm, ever the master of vivid imagery, said to keep your eye on the fox lest he lull you with his smile. This resonated with his audiences, given that they consisted of black people in liberal urban enclaves (i.e., New York and Los Angeles) who dealt not with the legal segregation of the South but de facto segregation resulting in substandard housing, jobs and schools.
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In the parlance of minister Malcolm, while the current President might be the growling wolf, the fox just revealed himself. Or rather, Joe Biden just reiterated his position as the fox, since his comments could be described as shocking but not surprising. With his condescending words and attitude, Biden reveals that he doesn’t want to earn our vote, but expects it. To be fair, Joe Biden is a moderate, not a liberal. But his “Well, I’m better than the other guy” message is pretty much what Malcolm often railed against.
Malcolm X criticized Martin Luther King, Jr. for openly campaigning against Barry Goldwater. Malcolm believed that King’s public position and statements against Goldwater, the Republican candidate, meant that Lyndon Baines Johnson didn’t have to do anything to win the vote of African-Americans. This is worth keeping in mind given the upcoming election. While I’m not advocating a vote for our current President, especially given everything that has happened this year (indeed, the reader can take a cue from the fact that I’m not even going to mention his name), we should be careful lest we just hand a platform to those who do nothing to earn it.
Black Voting Power
The unpublished chapter of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, along with other artifacts of black history, is available for viewing by appointment at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The passage reads not like a novel or narrative (which is probably why Alex Haley never published it within the narrative he was finishing after Malcolm died), but like an inspiring speech. This chapter is vintage Malcolm X, and while reading it you can practically picture him punctuating his points from the pulpit. Indeed, I highly recommend making an appointment at the Schomburg to read through it.
The chapter rails against consumer culture, self-hatred, the phenomenon of immigrant groups who arrived after black people but fared much better, and integrationist preachers and academics (for which he uses the descriptor “Uncle Thomas, Ph.D”). But the final section talks about the 1964 election and the idea of forming a black lobby, using that mechanism to query and assess candidates, and then selecting which candidate the “black bloc” will support. As he put it, the idea is to vote not as Democrats and Republicans but to vote as black people, and to represent the “special interests of the black race.”
As intriguing as this idea is, a black voting bloc doesn’t seem very practical right now. This may surprise some in the Democratic Party, but black voters are not a monolith given the diversity of our backgrounds, e.g., religious affiliation, professional versus working class, Caribbean/West African family background, etc. Still, this passage at least considers the possibility of us harnessing the power of our votes. Food for thought for when a politician reveals that he takes our vote for granted.
Indeed, the background of Malcolm X himself reflects some of the diversity of black experiences, as he was the son of a Southern carpenter/preacher and an educated bilingual Caribbean woman who met in Montreal, was born and raised in abject poverty (especially after his father was murdered) in the Midwest, and came of age in Boston and New York. He went from being junior high class president to convicted felon to erudite minister. (Dr. Manning Marable examined Malcolm X’s complicated life in detail in his amazing tome, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.)
One More Quick Note on Biden’s Comments
Aside from Biden’s much-reported statement about blackness, The Root’s Stephen Crockett deserves credit for also highlighting his excessive use of the moniker “man”, as in, “I’m following the rules, man”, “Totally different, man”, and “Take a look at my record, man!”
Having gone to predominantly white schools and worked mostly in predominantly white workplaces that habit irks me as well (along with the excessive use of “bro” if I’m not friends with you) and is revealing. Many black people recognize this for what it is, i.e., the shibboleth of those who want to try to relate to us without really understanding us or making much of an effort.
The Democratic Party and My Independent Status
A few years ago, despite having proudly worked in the Obama Administration and having worked on the campaign of my local Democratic congressman when I was in college, I decided to leave the party and become a registered independent. Since then, although I have occasionally voted for Republicans at the local level, and have donated to the campaigns of a couple of Republican candidates who I knew and believed in (in South Carolina and Iowa, for example), at the national level I have mostly supported Democrats. Voting is often a time-consuming activity for me, as I never do straight-ticket voting and have to research each individual candidate on the ballot.
I live in New York and previously lived in New Jersey, which are states that do not have open primary systems. In other words, independents can’t vote in primaries. Because of this, I struggle with my independent status every year. Joe Biden’s gaffe confirmed that, although for pragmatic reasons I’ll likely continue to vote mostly Democratic, I can’t fully commit to a party that takes votes from people like me for granted. If more states used an open primary system, perhaps Democratic candidates like Joe Biden would care more about my vote. Or I would be able to vote in the primaries for more empathic candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, who seems to actually want to campaign for my vote. (Sorry, Bernie Bros, but Bernie comes with his own list of problems.) But, then again, maybe I should keep my mouth shut since my independent status prevents me from voting in Democratic primaries for more empathetic candidates like Warren and Harris. Like I said, I still struggle with this.
Joe Biden and FDR
Some pundits are starting to liken Joe Biden to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), not in terms of his credentials but in terms of the post-pandemic wreckage he’ll likely inherit should he win this election. What can Biden do to get back in our good graces? It’s worth noting that, by 1935, the Roosevelt administration had 45 African Americans working in the cabinet offices and New Deal agencies, including Robert Weaver, Mary McLeod Bethune and Ralph Bunche. The group called itself the Federal Council on Negro Affairs but was labeled by the media as the Black Cabinet. As Robert Fay notes, Bethune and Weaver
were especially effective in working with white progressives in creating biracial political coalitions that linked the interests of blacks and whites around issues of economic justice and social welfare. Indeed, the members of the Black Cabinet worked in tandem with the massive crossover of black voters into the Democratic Party in the presidential election of 1936, giving form to a “New Deal coalition” built upon black voters, labor, and liberals.¹
Black people have been loyal to the Democratic Party, but black women have been really loyal. Let’s see if Biden takes his cue from his historical predecessor and rewards this loyalty by engaging with women like Stacey Abrams and Kristen Clarke (of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights) on the issue of combating voter suppression. Let’s see if he engages black women such as Val Demings and Ayanna Pressley at high levels in his administration. Let’s see if Senator Harris secures the Vice President nomination.
But Isn’t This Bribery?
No. This is taking care of a base that has been extremely loyal, and showing them that you don’t take them for granted. This is showing your base that you appreciate their loyalty and will continue to work for it. To give you some perspective, Donald Sterling, who was finally blackballed from the NBA after getting caught uttering racist sentiments, actually won two lifetime achievement awards from his local branch of the NAACP due to his donations. This is despite a long history of housing discrimination and belittling his black employees. Paying a local civil rights branch to give you awards and not look into your weird and/or criminal racist behavior is bribery. Incorporating people who represent a segment of voters in your base who have been extremely loyal is earning their votes. In other words, it’s democracy.
¹ Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (1999 edition), Black Cabinet entry by Robert Fay.
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