After reading “Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation”, I noticed that I agreed with the majority of the things said in the article. This article mainly touched on how politicians, such as Biden and Harris, claim verbally to represent certain races but there is no guarantee of their support when they are elected into office. In 1993, Biden showed his support towards supporting the 1994 crime bill that targeted young black people, which led to the stereotyping of all black people to be offenders even though that strictly isn’t the case. “This, of course, was not only about supposedly out-of-control youngsters; it was also an indictment of Black families and Black mothers as a source of disorder that, if unchecked, threatened to undermine white families as well. Biden has never taken responsibility for his overheated rhetoric and its role in demonizing Black families and thoroughly racializing crime”. Through Biden’s actions, we are able identify who he supports rather than blindly listening to his words and expecting him to act them out in office. In this instance, he made the action of sponsoring this bill and proceeded to talk about minorities in this way, it’s as simple as that. Even those who we think could be on minorities’ side because of their appearance, prove to be false. LaToya Cantrell, the first ever black woman in New Orleans was elected to be mayor, and considering who she identified as on the outside, those of her same race would vote to show support. However, while she was in office, she completely disregarded those of her own race and class before she was seen as important in society. Cantrell refused to help the working class from getting better pay, which would seem shocking considering that’s who she was supporting before she was in office. This teaches us as voting citizens to be careful of who we vote for to represent our city, state, or country as a whole. Words are not enough to show support, but rather their actions and decisions made are.
Spring 2022
