President Biden said Thursday that he doesn’t think the American people are racist but that the United States’ history with racial oppression shouldn’t be swept under the rug.
“No, I don’t think the American people are racist,” Mr. Biden told NBC News. “But I think after 400 years, African-Americans have been left in a position where they are so far behind the eight ball in terms of education [and] health, in terms of opportunity.”
“I think the overhang from all of the Jim Crow and, before that, slavery have had a cost and we have to deal with it,” the president said.
Mr. Biden had been asked about comments from Sen. Tim Scott, the South Carolina Republican who delivered the GOP response to the president’s address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday.
“Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country. It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination,” said Mr. Scott, who is Black. “And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present.”
Twitter had to block the racist slur “Uncle Tim” after it trended Wednesday evening in response to Mr. Scott, who says he deals with being called “Uncle Tom” and the N-word by people on the left.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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