Jill Biden Just Had Another Racist Moment | Opinion

For several days, the nation has been engulfed in yet another racial controversy, this time due to the budding rivalry between the predominately Black LSU women's college basketball team and the predominantly white Iowa team. LSU defeated Iowa in the NCAA National Championship game. The stars, LSU's Angel Reese, a Black woman, and Iowa's Caitlin Clark, a white woman, have become proxies for the larger battle in this country between Black and white, such as it exists. And First Lady Dr. Jill Biden just poured gasoline on the fire.

The racially tinged controversy started over what happened after Reese deployed WWE superstar John Cena's "you can't see me" taunt on the court. The taunt sparked a backlash, with many calling it disrespectful, rude and unsportsmanlike. Yet as many fans were quick to point out, Clark herself had used the very same taunt recently, and far from called out for it, she seen as entertaining and competitive, even scoring John Cena's stamp of approval.

The double standard was called out by many as another example of Black women being excoriated for the same behavior that their white counterparts are praised for.

Yet with all of this raging in the background, Dr. Biden, who was in attendance at the championship game, made things worse.

Dr. Biden suggested that both LSU and Iowa should be invited to the White House, breaking with decades of tradition that says that only the winner of a national championship gets the honor of a White House invite.

"I know we'll have the champions come to the White House, we always do," Dr. Jill explained. "So, we hope LSU will come. But, you know, I'm going to tell Joe I think Iowa should come, too, because they played such a good game."

The response on social media was swift and nearly uniformly negative. Angel herself derisively tweeted out the article and called it "a joke." On Fox Sports' popular show "Undisputed," Shannon Sharpe, a President Biden supporter, went nuclear. "If she didn't know, she should've known, before she opened her mouth and blurted this dumb scenario out," Sharpe said.

Sharpe went on to point out how the optics of her comments look horrible, considering the racial element. "Did you forget who helped put your husband in the White House?" he added. "You're going to find out a very serious, hard lesson in 2024. You'll be one and done. Play with it if you want to."

But this is not the first racist moment that Dr. Biden has had. In 2022, she cited bodegas and breakfast tacos as praise for Hispanic diversity, drawing widespread condemnation from the Hispanic community.

So this isn't new behavior. But it's bigger than just a latte liberal having moments of racism cloaked in white paternalism.

This was not some backbench fringe member of Congress. This was the First Lady of the United States, wading into a racial controversy on the opposite side of the constituency that her husband needs.

The fact that Dr. Biden felt comfortable enough to say something so disrespectful to her husband's most important constituency speaks volumes about how we as Black people are valued—or not valued—in this political environment.

The simple truth is this: If we continue to give our votes away to the Democratic Party without making them work for it, we will continue to be dismissed and disrespected. The fact that our vote is not as competitive as the votes of other communities means we do not have the same influence. We therefore live in an environment where one political party takes us for granted and the other one ignores us.

Throughout his political career, President Biden himself has had a history of saying racist things about Black people: The "you ain't black" comment. The "Black people are not diverse" comment. The "racial jungle" comment. The "Republicans are going to put y'all back in chains" comment. The "Obama is the first mainstream African American who is articulate, bright and clean" comment. And because of a compliant corporate media and the lack of competition for our votes, he gets away with it.

It is not in our best interest to have all of our political capital invested in one party when we live in a two party system. Without the ability to influence both sides, we will continue to be disrespected by both sides without fear of repercussion.

Dr. Biden's stupid comment is a symptom of a larger problem. Black Americans are taken for granted by many of the very people that we put in power, because they don't fear any political consequences. In life and in politics, people do not value what they don't have to work for.

We need to change that if we're going to get anywhere in this country.

Darvio Morrow is the CEO of the FCB Radio Network and co-host of The Outlaws Radio Show.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.