I probably mention the Swamp too seldom because they do exactly what I think a good newspaper blog by reporters can do very well by providing quick updates and covering small stories that won’t make the print edition. James makes the point about Biden’s quote:
Note to Biden. Well-spoken black people hate it when white people call them “articulate.” It’s the modern-day version of what white people used to say back in the day when they thought that by saying “He’s a credit to his race” they were saying something that a black person would welcome hearing.
Those dated words, like Biden’s comments, were patronizing at the very least. And they also appeared to carry some pretty negative assumptions about the majority of the race.
In fact, Biden could’ve pared his thoughts down and just called Obama a credit to his race. It would have had pretty much the same effect.
It’s the same as when Syverson and Rauschenberger thought they should find an articulate black man to oppose Obama in 2004.
It’s not that Biden called him “articulate”.
It’s that Biden used the word in the sentence after he noted he was African-American. (And in all fairness the newspaper amplified the effect with creative punctuation — actually, lack thereof.)
One could call HRC or Richardson “articulate” and no one would think anything of it. But say, “Hillary’s a woman. And she’s articulate,” and it completely changes the meaning (same with Richardson, etc)…