After reading the article Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation by Keeanga-Yamahatta Taylor, I learned that black individuals especially black women are more likely to live in poverty because they are “one of the most oppressed and marginalized groups in the United States.” It is interesting to see the change of Joe Biden from 1988 to the modern-day as he went from demonizing black individuals as criminals to fighting for the justice of black individuals through Black Lives Matter and choosing Kamala Harris as his running mate. In 1993, Biden called black juvenile offenders “predators on our streets” and passed the 1994 Crime Bill that caused a spike in the incarceration of black individuals. This shows that Biden probably doesn’t actually support black individuals and he only said so for the purpose of gaining the votes of black voters. According to the author, “the limits of representation” means that just because a black person is elected to power, it doesn’t mean that he or she will fully understand the needs of the black community. During Obama’s term, “fifty-two percent of African Americans said that Obama’s policies had not gone far enough to improve their situation.” The same goes for the situation with Kamala Harris because she is wealthy with an estimated net worth of “six million dollars”. It is unreasonable to assume that an elected black official will make policies to support the poor black individuals because most individuals that are elected are wealthy. Being wealthy means that they will not understand the struggles of living in poverty and it is not guaranteed that they will policies to help the poor black individuals.
Spring 2022
