Reading the article “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation” was very insightful, and it raised many valid points about politics overall, and especially about representation. The way Biden vilified the Black community when he served as a senator was eye-opening. He is mentioned in the article as being “the architect of the 1994 Crime Bill” which made out Black communities to be the villains of the United States. Not only this, but he made demonizing comments, calling Black children “predators on our streets,” and saying that it doesn’t matter whether these children are the victims of society, because “they’re about to knock my mother on the head with a lead pipe, shoot my sister, beat up my wife, take on my sons.” As the article goes to explain, this not only vilified the children, but Black families and mothers overall. Fast forward to now, and Biden chose Kamala Harris as his vice president, making her the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian to hold this office. Along with this goes Biden’s diplomatic support of Black issues. All of this goes to show, however, that his choices are calculated and made to improve his approval and popularity. This touches on the issue of representation in politics as well. Although representation is good, we see politicians use it to their benefit, instead of actually working for improvement of the society they lead. The excitement of “the firsts” drowns out the concern for actual policies, when really, we should push for real change in addition to representation. I think the article overall was very interesting, and it made me think about some things I hadn’t really thought about before.
3 thoughts on “Blog 7”
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I thought you made great points about politics and representation in your response. I agree with your statement on how politicians use the heavily discussed topic of representation to their advantage. As potentially good as it is to bring attention to representation, it’s all the more important for these politicians to actually carry out policies that will benefit those that are misrepresented or in need.
I agreed with you when you said Biden’s vice president choice was a strategic play to pick up more African American voters. Bidens early moves as a senator showed how he believed African Americans were evil and dangerous. His idea probably has not changed since then as he never made a direct apology. So I think all of this was a strategic play to win the election.
I agree with what you said about his choices being made in order to make him more popular. I think this article really emphasized that we should look behind the reason of an action and hold people, especially people with power, accountable when they don’t hold up their end of the promise.