Joe Biden swings and misses trying to honor Satchel Paige

November 12, 2021

President Joe Biden stumbled into a bit of a controversy yesterday when he used racially insensitive language while talking about former MLB pitcher Satchel Paige. While speaking at a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery honoring Donald Blinken, the former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, Biden referred to Paige as “the great Negro.”

“I’ve adopted the attitude of the great Negro at the time, pitcher of the Negro Leagues, who went on to become a great pitcher in the pros, in Major League Baseball, after Jackie Robinson. His name was Satchel Paige,” Biden said. As anyone living in 2021 would have guessed, the slip-up caused quite the storm on social media.

Obviously, any time a U.S. president uses the word “Negro,” it is going to make headlines. And while I am no Biden supporter, it seems kind of obvious that Biden misspoke. Objectively speaking, it would seem that Biden meant to say “great pitcher of the Negro Leagues” instead of “great Negro at the time.” Additionally, presidents have been known to misspeak from time to time as they are under enormous amounts of stress. Who can forget the time former President Barack Obama said he visited 57 states? Or on Memorial Day in 2008 when Obama said he saw dead soldiers in the audience? The only reason it is receiving any attention is that Biden’s blunder included the racially insensitive word.

Now, many have pounced on this opportunity to criticize Biden or use it to demonstrate how Biden is a racist and really is prejudiced toward black people. However, if this is being posed as a serious argument by people, it is intellectually dishonest. However, what should be analyzed is the media’s reaction to Biden’s slip-up.

In this instance, the media, pundits, politicians, and the like came to Biden’s defense. They made essentially the same argument I made above and emphasized what Biden meant to say rather than what he did say. Former President Donald Trump would have not been afforded the same luxury.

First, had Trump made the very same mistake, we all know what the media narrative would have said. It would have labeled him a racist and a bigot. The story would have been how it was a Freudian slip by Trump and shows his true feelings regarding black people. If you think this is not the case, then you are being as equally intellectually dishonest as those who are trying to paint Biden that way. Yet it is this inconsistency that should be highlighted.

Consider how the press, media, pundits, and politicians reacted when Trump did make a blunder. Who can forget the time when, during the pandemic in 2020, Trump stumbled upon his words and it came across as if he was suggesting to inject oneself with disinfectant as a way to treat COVID-19? The group of people who came to Biden’s defense was not as forgiving when it came to Trump.

The real issue with Biden’s slip-up is not what he said but the media’s reaction. Their power and bias allowed them to jump ahead of the story and create a narrative. This narrative was forgiving and sympathetic toward Biden. The media have different standards when the person is a Republican. Let’s start demanding the media treat people equally instead of prioritizing them based on political party registration.

########################