Identity politics: that thing you turn to when you could never get elected based on your ideas, platforms, plans or ideology.
Or at least, that’s what Maxine Waters must think of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, considering she just said there’s no way he’ll win over the black community by Election Day without picking a black women as his running mate.
“Let me guarantee you this, based on everything that I know and understand, and the help that [Biden] has already gotten from the Black community…he can’t go home without a Black woman being VP,” the California congresswoman said during a town hall Friday. “We’re going to have a Black woman VP.”
Several names have been thrown out as potential running mates for the 77-year-old Biden, including California Senator Kamala Harris and former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice.
Waters’ comment that the “black community” has helped push Biden down the campaign trail and is therefore owed a spot on his ticket mirrors comments made by other Democratic politicians – including Biden himself – suggesting that black Americans are a homogenous group that all think – and vote – exactly alike. Biden caught flak last month for stating that a black Americans “ain’t black” if they don’t vote for him, following that up with a comment just last week claiming that while Hispanic Americans display diversity of thought, black Americans don’t.