Opinion: Is Biden the White Moderate MLK Jr. Warned Us About?
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” the civil rights leader warned that one of the biggest hurdles to racial equality was actually the “white moderate”—someone who feigns outrage at injustice yet pushes back on those who seek to upend the status quo in the name of social justice.
When presented with the question of whether President Joe Biden is acting like the white moderate in King’s letter on this week’s episode of The New Abnormal, author Eddie Glaude Jr., the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, replied by saying: “At times? Yes, absolutely, to be honest with you.”
“I don’t necessarily draw the conclusion about his heart,” he added. “I think it’s part of the American political consultant class… and though I’ve never heard a president speak the way this one does from the bully pulpit about white supremacy and racism, he has to be more aggressive.”
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Plus! A conversation with Vicky Hausman, the co-founder of an organization called Forward Majority, about the need for Democrats to reclaim state legislatures across the country after decades of neglect in the party’s state apparatuses.
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“We’ve been trying to help accelerate the fight for power and help Democrats win in state legislatures that are not just competitive, but where there’s been chronic underinvestment for so long,” she said, naming five states where Forward is concentrating their efforts: the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Minnesota—as well as Texas, which is a long-term project that analysts believe could turn a brighter shade of purple in the years to come.
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
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