America needs a racial healer — not Biden

SAN DIEGO — Sorry, folks. But, if recent events have you looking for a savior who can heal racial divisions, end police violence and make the criminal justice system fair to people of all colors, Joe Biden is NOT the one.

With Donald Trump threatening that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Democrats hunger for a candidate who is “woke” on race and understands that the deadliest street gang that most black people will ever encounter wears badges and blue.

Julian Castro got that. When the former presidential hopeful — who only recently endorsed Biden — was asked about mass shootings, he used to say: “Police violence is also gun violence.”

Now that Biden’s the presumptive Democratic nominee, he wants to appropriate that message. All of a sudden, the 77-yearold veteran politico desperately yearns to be our country’s racial healer.

In 2008, Barack Obama wanted to fill the same role, and he went to Philadelphia, where he delivered an inspirational speech on race.

This week, Biden also went to Philadelphia, where he delivered a speech on race that was far less inspirational.

“Our country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together, leadership that can recognize pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for a long time,” the former vice president said.

But when it comes to race and criminal justice, Biden is not woke. He’s a joke.

Consider the bizarre story that Biden tells about a confrontation he allegedly had in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1962 with a young black man called “Corn Pop” who was allegedly horsing around near a public pool, where Biden was a teenage lifeguard. Corn Pop — who was later identified as William Morris — was a “bad dude,” recalled Biden in a campaign video.

The media framed the story as being about the importance of standing up for yourself. But, for me, it sounds like a white guy bragging about how he protected other white people from a black guy.

That is Biden’s natural go-to position. In fact, for much of the half century that he’s been in politics, Biden has been the opposite of a racial reformer. He has been a champion all right

— of police. For 50 years, Biden has cast himself as a defender of law enforcement.

But now that Biden has responded to the killing of George Floyd by calling for more police oversight and appearing sympathetic to protesters, some police groups feel betrayed. And they’re yanking their support for someone they once considered a loyal ally.

“For Joe Biden, police are shaking their heads, because he used to be a stand-up guy who backed law enforcement,” National Association of Police Associations Executive Director Bill Johnson told Politico. “But it seems in his old age, for whatever reason, he’s writing a sad final chapter when it comes to supporting law enforcement.”

In an earlier chapter, during his time in the Senate, Biden was the chief architect of the racist 1994 crime bill which put more cops on the street but also gave rise to the scourge of mass incarceration.

It’s clear that, for Biden, the job of police is not to heal racial wounds or act as social workers. It’s to protect citizens and their property from people of color. A lot of cops agree with him.

Now, in the next five months, Biden must sprint to the left — and hope everyone has short memories and no one has access to Google.

Good luck. It’s not so easy to transform yourself from Bull Connor to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Still, this cynical strategy might work. When recounting the past, Democrats have selective memories. Mention that Trump and his father wouldn’t rent to black tenants in the 1970s, and liberals play that story to the hilt. But bring up the fact that Obama deported 3 million people, while Biden stood idly by, and the lefties call it ancient history and tell you to move on.

The Democrat does have one thing going for him on matters of race and criminal justice. He’s not Trump. He’s not part of the problem. But don’t kid yourself. He’s still a long way from being part of the solution.

Four years ago, Trump used sleight of hand to show that Republicans were dumb enough to support someone who spent his whole life opposing their values.

We’ll see if Biden can pull off the same trick with Democrats.