Will Joe Biden’s “You Ain’t Black” Moment Cost Him the Black Vote?

Joe Biden recently came under fire for an interview he did with author and radio personality Charlamagne the God on the syndicated radio show The Breakfast Club.

The comment that sparked a lot of backlash from both liberal and conservative circles came at the end of the interview when Joe Biden said, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

Almost immediately after the interview, social media exploded with hashtags such as #IAintBlack and #JoeBidenIsRacist, which trended on Twitter throughout the day.

In response to the backlash, Joe Biden issued an apology Friday evening saying, “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy. I shouldn’t have been so cavalier.”

This is not the first time Joe Biden has sparked controversy for saying the wrong thing. Biden has a known history of gaffes that have caused many to question his mental capability and racial sensitivity. At a townhall hosted by the Asian & Latino Coalition in Des Moines last August, Joe Biden remarked, “We have this notion somehow if you’re poor, you can not do it. Poor kids are just as bright as white kids.”

Following this remark, which insinuated that only non-white children could be poor, Biden’s Deputy Campaign Manager, Kate Bedingfield, came out and said that Biden misspoke.

But will any of these gaffes ultimately hurt Biden’s chances of securing the black vote?

Probably Not.

According to a new Quinnipiac poll, Joe Biden is polling at 81% with black voters in the 2020 General Election compared to a mere 3% by President Donald Trump.

This seemingly huge imbalance does not come as a surprise as African-American voters have consistently been the Democratic Party’s most loyal voting block. In the 2016 Election, Hillary Clinton received 91% of the black vote compared to Trump’s 6%. In the 2012 Election, President Barack Obama received 93% of the black vote compared to Mitt Romney’s 6%.

Even though black voters may still prefer Biden in November over Trump, despite his gaffes, the real problem Biden could face is not turning out the 1.5 million black people who voted for Obama in 2012 but stayed home in 2016.

Some argue that Hillary Clinton lost the election due to a lack of turn out amongst low-income minority voters in key swing states, such as Michigan and Wisconsin.

Why the lack of turn out?

There were a plethora of reasons why Americans did not like Hillary Clinton. For African Americans, in particular, many criticized Clinton for her husband’s involvement in the 1994 Crime Bill (drafted by Joe Biden), her use of the term “super-predator”, which was interpreted as an attack against African-American men, and her seemingly inauthentic behavior that was pereceived as pandering to the black community.

Even though these racial issues did not prevent Hillary Clinton from securing the majority of the black vote in the election, they ultimately caused her to lose key races ending in Donald Trump becoming president.

Similarly, Biden’s gaffes may turn off a large portion of African-Americans who are either deciding between himself and Trump or deciding whether to vote at all.

All in all, Biden should be more fearful of African-Americans staying home in November due to his gaffes than them voting for Donald Trump.