In case you missed it, a video of Joe Biden purportedly making racist comments has been making the rounds:
Biden proclaims the 'European' identity of America: "Our culture is not imported from some African nation." pic.twitter.com/mG1ys8fzWB
— ᏔმƦ?ჳ? (@mooncult) January 2, 2020
Were his comments really as bad as they were initially made out to be?
An hour ago, I shared this clip of the fmr VP, calling it racist. In context, it's less bad. He's saying violence against women has roots essentially in English jurisprudence and white man's culture. I think the claim is somewhat dubious, but at worst it's pandering. https://t.co/dN9PifBSpD
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 2, 2020
Biden is right that domestic violence is a symptom of systemic patriarchy–and our legal system has been a part of that. But to blame violence against women on "white man's culture" is reductive. Violence against women is a global problem and the US is a melting pot.
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 2, 2020
This isn't to say white supremacy doesn't fuel the problem. It does. Case in point: https://t.co/dZbrDgWGR0
As for Biden's claims, they were part of a speech where he was trying to explain away his treatment of Anita Hill, saying he couldn't help her more. So…yeah.
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 2, 2020
So to recap: In context, Biden's remarks are not "America is a white nation." They were "DV is a systemic problem that comes from white men."
— Walker Bragman (@WalkerBragman) January 2, 2020
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OK …
So Biden isn't practicing one type of racism but rather another? Liberals are weird these days man https://t.co/N0gPB0vzgU
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) January 2, 2020
They certainly are.
Anyway, CNN reporter and fact-checker Daniel Dale has also been complaining about people who have taken Biden’s remarks “out of context”:
A wildly out of context Biden clip is circulating on Twitter.
He spoke for 10+ minutes in NH about his history of work against domestic violence and sex assault, which he repeatedly described as a "cultural problem" he argued goes back to permissive English common law. 1/3
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2020
He told a story about past English judges tolerating wife-beating. Minutes later, returning to his argument about how American permissiveness toward the abuse of women descends from centuries-old English permissiveness, he said this: pic.twitter.com/RxOYylfwz0
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2020
In summary, the clip circulating on Twitter omits 1) the entire subject of Biden's comments; 2) Biden saying "Folks, this is about changing the culture" at the beginning; 3) Biden explaining at the end that he was talking about a culture "that says it's alright" to abuse.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 2, 2020
We have no doubt that Dale and his CNN colleagues would waste no time extending the same courtesy to Donald Trump or other Republicans taken “out of context.” Iowahawk can’t help but notice the irony here:
I think we can acknowledge that the Biden video clip is wildly out of context, and at the same time acknowledge that CNN complaining about out of context video is wildly hilarioushttps://t.co/HWxWaTUJ7z
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) January 2, 2020
Hilarious is right.
If Biden were a Republican, not only would CNN show the clip round-the-clock, but they would already have had 4 language experts on to confirm that in three separate instances Biden appeared to use the n-word.
— Buried Bump Stock (@RichardMilhousN) January 2, 2020