As we wait with bated breath for Joe Biden to announce his running mate and many of us have our fingers, toes and eyes crossed hoping he picks one of the outstanding African-American women said to be on his shortlist, I’ve noticed something interesting and troubling: a number of people seem to have a problem with black women being given a preference in the veepstakes.
Among the more common pushbacks: “He shouldn’t pick anyone based on race, but on qualifications.” And “What difference should her race make? Just pick the best person.”
In other words, whenever we talk about Biden making a special effort to choose a black woman, some folk go all “content of her character” on us.
Interestingly, however, many of these same people making this argument didn’t seem to have any problem with Biden announcing he would pick a woman, and only a woman. Men, he said, need not apply.
I didn’t see many women insist that “He shouldn’t pick anyone based on gender. He should just pick the best person, and if the best person is a man, so be it.”
No. They were thrilled – and rightly so – that Biden was singling out one group of people who have for too long been excluded from the game.
Yet now that there is a rising tide calling for Biden to select a black woman, many of these same people are insisting that race shouldn’t be the deciding or even significant factor.
But if it’s fine and dandy for Biden to only consider women, why would it be wrong for him to only consider black women?
If you’re ok with Biden limiting his selection pool to women (which excludes all men, including black and brown ones), you should also be ok if he were to limit that pool to just black women, a group even more underrepresented and marginalized than white women.
If you’re not, you might want to think about why you have a problem with it.