Joe Biden has a poor track record on race relations

In his long political career, Joe Biden has taken regrettable positions on race issues. In the 1970s, he called busing, where children were transported to schools outside their locality to promote desegregation, a “bankrupt policy”.^[1] He also was a leading proponent of the 1994 Crime Bill which was instrumental in producing the mass incarceration problem in the US which disproportionately affects men of colour.^[2] As Obama’s vice president, Biden also must take responsibility for the administration’s hostile immigration policy which resulted in 3 million people being deported, of which 1.7 million had no criminal record.^[3] Biden also has a history of taking for granted the support of communities of colour, particularly the Black community, without delivering results. In May 2020, he said in an interview that “if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black”.^[4] This highly offensive remark suggests that on race relations, Biden cannot be trusted to deliver.