Robin Barnes: Joe Biden is the Face of the System so Many Americans are Protesting Against

Let’s be unequivocally clear—Black Americans have endured the pain and injustice of racism and discrimination since this nation’s founding. We must continue to strive for a better future as we work to recover from the nation’s original sin—slavery.

The death of George Floyd is just the latest example of the injustice Black Americans face. It hurts me to the core—watching the police officer kneel on his neck and a second officer who watches the entire time as Mr. Floyd’s life slowly slips away in front of our eyes.

I was incensed.

Again?

Unfortunately, the response by genuinely frustrated Americans is being hijacked by radicals who have nefarious ambitions unrelated to the honorable goals of the peaceful protesters. Outside agitators, professional anarchists, foreign governments, and criminal opportunists are using the emotion and anger of the protesters to pit American’s against each other and to create chaos.

Let’s back up for a moment. The peaceful protests raise legitimate questions about America’s justice system and changes that can be made to right previous wrongs.

A fact missed by television pundits and the permanent Washington political establishment (many who profit from the race-baiting and sensationalism), is Joe Biden’s central role in passing the 1994 Crime Bill and other actions that have been especially detrimental to the Black community.

During the 1980’s and 90’s, the politically ambitious Biden wanted to lead the Democrat Party on the “crime issue,” at a time when the party was viewed as weak on crime. Violent crime was a big problem in America, but Biden looked at the issue as a public relations problem for the Democrat Party.

“Give me the crime issue and you’ll never have trouble with it in an election,” Biden told the Democrat Party leadership at the time. His focus was not actually to solve the issue for the American people, he just wanted to appear tough on crime in order to solve the public relations issue surrounding his party’s perceived weakness on crime.

In the early 1980’s, Biden pushed to expand the federal government’s policing powers. He helped expand the war on drugs and ramped up sentencing guidelines and mass incarceration at an unprecedented scale.

Biden successfully led efforts to pass a new crime bill in the early 1990s that expanded on his mass incarceration policies of the ‘80’s and contributed to the rise in federal imprisonment from 11 inmates for every 100,000 Americans in 1980, to 68 for every 100,000 in 2013.

The term “racist” is thrown around too loosely, and I won’t go so far to call Biden one. But Biden’s legislative record and clear disregard for the effect of his actions on the Black community tells us he is a political opportunist willing to do or say anything for political gain.

Meanwhile, President Trump has led the way on criminal justice reform, increased funding to HBCU’s, and ushered in the lowest Black unemployment rate ever before the global coronavirus pandemic temporarily shut down the economy.

The contrast between Biden’s and President Trump’s response to the protests couldn’t be starker. While Biden looks to pander and score cheap political points off the backs of the Black community (sound familiar?), President Trump is making it clear that he is an ally to the peaceful protesters and their cause, while also demonstrating that we will have law and order on our streets.

While Donald Trump’s usual detractors twist themselves into a pretzel trying to blame the President for the unrest, Joe Biden is quite literally the face of a system that has talked down to the Black community and taken advantage of their support.

Instead of cracking down on violent looters and thugs, the weak Democrat leadership would rather sacrifice the livelihoods of their own constituents than give President Trump credit for ending the violence. In fact, some Democrats are openly condoning it.

While the left and its media allies talk in big, “profound” phrases about what they’re doing to support the black community, President Trump talks through his actions.

Robin Barnes is the Broker-Owner of Latitude Luxury Real Estate and a COVID-19 survivor. She also serves as a member of the Black Voices for Trump coalition.