Joe Biden: ‘Some Black Woman’ Stocking Grocery Shelves Allowed People to Stay Home During Pandemic

Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Joshua Klein

Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden, speaking at a roundtable event with veterans in Tampa, Florida, last month, attributed people’s ability to stay home during the current pandemic to “some black woman” stocking grocery shelves.

Watch:

Video of the comment went viral on Twitter this week, leading to a backlash on social media with critics deeming the comments both offensive and racist.

“What???? And Black folks STILL giving him a pass!” National Diversity Coalition for Trump CEO Dr. Darrell Scott exclaimed.

“What is it about Democrats that they automatically see minorities as low-level service workers???” tweeted filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza.

“And y’all say TRUMP is racist?” quipped singer-songwriter Joy Villa.

Read his expanded remarks (emphasis added):

I am, ironically, more optimistic about the prospects of dealing with the problems we talked about today, as well as so many other problems we have right now, than I’ve ever been in my whole career. And they say, “Well, why in the hell would you say that, Biden? You just talked about all these difficulties.” Well, I’ll tell you why. Because the American public, the blinders have been taken off. They’ve all of a sudden seen a hell of a lot clearer. They’re saying, “Jeeze, the reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some black woman was able to stock the grocery shelf. Or I got a young Hispanic is out there, these dreamers are out there, 60,000 of them acting as first responders and nurses and docs.” Or all of a sudden people are realizing, “My Lord, these people have done so much. Not just black, white, across the board, have done so much for me. We can do this. We can get things done.” And I think they’re ready.

Biden has taken heat in the past for other inappropriate comments, most notably earlier this year when he contemptuously referred to black citizens who did not vote for him as not truly black.

“If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden said in May on The Breakfast Club, a popular New York City-based radio show.

The Democrat presidential candidate apologized after the interview, adding that he did not take black voters for granted.

“I know that the comments have come off like I was taking the African American vote for granted. But nothing could be further [from] the truth,” Biden said. “I’ve never, ever done that, and I’ve earned it every time I’ve run. I was making the point that I have never taken the vote for granted.”

In August, Biden was criticized for remarking in an interview that the African American community was not diverse.

“Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community,” he said in an address to the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) Joint Virtual Convention.

In one incident, President Trump accused Biden of making “very insulting” statements toward the black community.  

As Breitbart News reported, these were not one-offs but part of a record of racism on the part of the former vice president. 

With one month until the election, Biden’s history of racist remarks, along with more and more recent ones, hardly helps his campaign’s efforts to reach black voters.

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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