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Biden can talk more freely about racial injustice because he's an old white man with a reputation as a moderate. 1/
Non-white politicians, and especially black and brown politicians, have to be much more careful in what they say about race. 2/
Research shows that black political candidates are punished for demonstrating too much affinity for their own race. @LaFleurPhD has done a series of really elegant studies about this, included in her outstanding book "Race to the Bottom": https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo50271574.html 3/
Imagine if Obama said "We have all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black Americans" in a speech to Congress. It would have been received very differently. 4/
This comes up in a lot of situations. Here's one close to home. As a professor, I always think very carefully before I talk about discrimination against Asian Americans because I know many students will perceive it as self-interested. White professors don't have that concern. 5/
To be clear, I'm really glad that Biden has chosen to use his position and reputation to deliver a clear message about racial injustice. We need to continue think about who is allowed to deliver racial messages and why. /end
