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Biden to Morehouse Graduates: America Hates You

As his black support erodes, he plays up racial resentments to the class of 2024.

The polls say President Biden has lost support among black Americans, and the White House appears to have settled on a strategy to win them back: spread more racial division. That’s the main message from the President’s dishonorable commencement address Sunday at storied Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Mr. Biden naturally offered the 2024 graduates a list of what he sees as his accomplishments for black Americans. He indulged in his familiar gilded personal history as a civil-rights crusader. He gave the impression that the Delaware Democratic Party was a racist operation until Sen. Joe Biden came along. At least that’s the somewhat forgivable politics of self-aggrandizement.

Less forgivable was the President’s attempt to stir resentment among the graduates on what should be a day to appreciate what they accomplished and to inspire hope for the future. Here’s what Mr. Biden said instead:

“You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race. It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you.

“What is democracy if black men are being killed in the street?

“What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave black—black communities behind?

“What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot?

“And most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard before, to be a black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?”

Thanks for the uplift, Mr. President. Since Mr. Biden is asking questions, is this what he wants these young graduates to believe about their country—that American democracy is defined by its racial animosity, as if they still live in the Jim Crow South?

As others have noted, imagine working hard for four years to graduate and on a day of celebration for you and your families the President of the United States sends you off with a message that your countrymen who are white want you to fail. Is this what President Biden thinks of America?

Apparently it is. He also told the graduates that Republicans don’t want blacks to vote. “Today in Georgia, they won’t allow water to be available to you while you wait in line to vote in an election. What in the hell is that all about? I’m serious. Think about it. And then the constant attacks on black election workers who count your vote,” he said.

Yes, think about it. The 2022 Senate race in the Deep South state of Georgia featured two black men as the major-party nominees. The Democrat won after the election reforms that Mr. Biden caricatures as racist.

Mr. Biden also turned the Jan. 6 Capitol riot into a racial event: “Insurrectionists who storm the Capitol with Confederate flags are called ‘patriots’ by some. Not in my house. Black police officers, black veterans protecting the Capitol were called another word, as you’ll recall.” The riot was a disgrace for which hundreds have been severely punished, but that day wasn’t driven by racial hatred.

All of this is a long way from the Joe Biden who promised Americans in 2020 that he would unite the country. But it may reflect his political desperation. The reason he has lost the support of millions of blacks and Hispanics is the same reason he is trailing in the polls to the man he defeated in 2020.

It is because his economic policies have failed to deliver the gains he promised. It’s because the inflation ignited by his overspending has caused real wages to decline across his Presidency. It’s because the world is a mess and he seems to have no idea what to do about it.

He can’t run on that record, so he is trying to change the subject by dividing Americans with racial demagoguery. It’s not a message worthy of a President, though it looks like it’s the best Mr. Biden has to offer.