Biden has lied generously, consistently — almost voluptuously — about so many topics: inflation, the border, Build Back Better, his loopy fictions about conductors, being arrested with Nelson Mandela, the most recent fable about applying to the Naval Academy and so on.
But his creative juices really start to flow when he talks about race and crime.
For instance, Biden speaks with great passion about hate crimes perpetrated against Black Americans, implying that white supremacy is the scourge that fills our morgues and makes our sidewalks unsafe. It is total bunk.
Heather MacDonald writes in the City Journal that most hate crimes are committed not by whites but rather by blacks. MacDonald presents the statistics, which do not lie. She writes: “From 2016 to 2020, blacks nationally were twice as likely to commit a hate crime as whites, according to FBI data, among hate-crime suspects whose race and ethnicity were known.”
As to local hate crimes: “In New York City, from 2010 to 2020, blacks were 2.42 times as likely as whites to commit a hate crime…Blacks in Los Angeles committed anti-Asian hate crimes at 4.8 times the rate of whites in 2021…committed anti-gay hate crimes at seven times the rate of whites, and anti-Semitic hate crimes at 2.4 times the rate of whites.”
These are facts. They are unpleasant facts, and they in no way condone any violence perpetrated by other groups. The recent murder by a White man of ten individuals in a Buffalo grocery store, most of whom were Black, is a heinous act. So was the murder of six White people by a Black man in Waukesha, Wisconsin, last Christmas.
Only one of those incidents has been charged as a hate crime. Only one inspired a visit from President Biden.
As Jason Riley wrote in the Wall Street Journal about the Waukesha incident: “Given the suspect’s history of posting messages on social media that called for violence against white people and praised Hitler for killing Jews, you’d think that his race and the race of his victims would be relevant to reporters.”
But, as Riley concludes, when the outrages don’t fit the narrative, “the left…[goes] colorblind.”
Hate truly is, as Joe Biden has said, a “stain on the soul of our nation,” but it is not mostly driven by White racists.
This damaging narrative encourages more hate and violence from those who perceive themselves to be victims as it denies them hope. It also prevents any investigation or amelioration of other reasons that Black achievement lags that of Hispanics and whites. Like perhaps our corrupt public education system, which fails so many minority children.
Joe Biden is desperate to keep Black voters in his column. Instead of playing the race card, maybe he should tackle the issues that matter most – to blacks, and indeed to all voters – like inflation and crime. And, start telling the truth about the challenges we face.