Tribe nod Liz could have done without
Harvard professor’s backing of Warren for VP likely her undoing
A push by a group of mostly white liberals to convince Joe Biden to pick U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren as his running mate has backfired badly, drawing scathing criticism and with one of the lead architects being forced to apologize for offending people of color.
Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe, who signed a letter with 100 other liberals urging Biden to pick Warren, told The Washington Post that putting a black woman on the ticket was just “cosmetics” — triggering outrage from black activists and others.
“I actually think they didn’t know what they were saying,” tweeted former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean. “This is the kind of clueless racism that many ‘well meaning’ white folks engage in all the time. We have to overcome this in this round of dealing with American racism. They are well meaning and hopefully willing to learn.”
Another political progressive, Karen Finney, tweeted, “As a Black woman progressive I want a Black woman. It just illustrates why Black voters aren’t sold on progressives — the interests simply don’t always align.”
Finney added: “Doubt the authors of this letter realize how offensive it is to essentially say a white woman knows more about racial justice and inequality than a Black woman. Oh, and we’re tired of being told to wait our turn.”
The blowback perfectly showcases why picking a white woman like Warren, a Massachusetts senator and former Harvard Law professor, would be so dangerous for Biden.
Warren’s chances of getting the VP nod now seem remote, thanks to dumb moves like white liberals like Tribe weighing in to sway Biden.
With several leading women of color on Biden’s short list, like Rep. Val
Demings and Sen. Kamala Harris, it would be political malpractice to pick Warren, who early in her law career listed herself as an “American Indian.”
Tribe’s comments especially were offensive and he spent much of the day backpedaling to do damage control.
“In urging @SenWarren as the strongest VP choice, I didn’t mean to express any doubt at all that several women of color currently on what’s said to be the Biden short list would be excellent choices as well,” Tribe tweeted. “And when asked by the Post why Biden’s choice of a white woman wouldn’t automatically offend African Americans, I replied that I thought they “above all would be the first to say they are more interested in results than cosmetics.’ I apologize for my choice of words.”
The apology did little to stamp out the Warren firestorm.
Political columnist Clifton Brown chimed in, “Even if Laurence Tribe didn’t fully realize what he was saying, it speaks to a mindset. When someone can blithely dismiss black women VP contenders as ‘cosmetic’ it’s more than just a misstatement. It’s a mindset.”
Biden would be wise to listen to critics like Brown. If he actually picked Warren — which now seems unlikely — it could end up sending the ticket into racial turmoil.