Joe Biden referred to racial activist Jesse Jackson as “boy” when complimenting the African American politician and then Democratic presidential candidate at a 1984 news conference.
“He is one of the brightest guys around,” Biden said in Lexington, Va., after a reporter asked him about how Jackson’s presidential campaign could shape the Democratic Party in the future. “That boy ain’t no dummy, just like Gary Hart, that boy ain’t no dummy either.”
Jackson, 77, who ran for president in both 1984 and 1988, is a year older than Biden, 76, who was born in 1942. At the time, Biden denied that his comments were “racially derogatory” and noted how he also referred to Hart, then a Democratic senator for Colorado, who is white, the same way.
The episode was reported in the Washington Post at the time.
This week, Biden faced attacks from his 2020 Democratic rivals over remarks he made at a Manhattan fundraiser where he boasted about the work he got done with segregationist Democratic senators.
“I was in a caucus with James O. Eastland,” Biden said in an affected Southern drawl. “He never called me ‘boy,’ he always called me ‘son.’” “At least there was some civility,” Biden continued. “We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore. Folks, I believe one of the things I’m pretty good at is bringing people together.”
Biden got in hot water at the start of his 2008 presidential campaign when he talk about Barack Obama, then a U.S. senator for Illinois, saying: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
The comment was seen widely as a reference to Jackson, who had run for president in 1984 and 1988. After Biden had apologized to him, Obama said: “I didn’t take Sen. Biden’s comments personally, but obviously they were historically inaccurate.
“African American presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns, and no one would call them inarticulate.”
Jackson responded at the time: “Knowing Joe Biden the way I do, I’m sure he didn’t mean it as off-color, but it is certainly highly suggestive.”
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