This post is going to be fairly quick.
i have seen discussions pop up regarding Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis; however, i saw something within the last week or so about him getting checked for a tumor. Interestingly, i did not see many discussing this at all. It’s possible that some news circuits picked up on it, but they kept the news (in general) on the low until they had an actual diagnosis- i have no idea.
What i envision happening though, is that any coverage of Biden regarding his illness, whether by mainstream/legacy or social media, is going to gravitate towards certain qualifiers for him, as if he is now among the ‘middle class’, or the masses. He will be simultaneously lionized as a former president, while also having his role as a president expunged in the annals of time- particularly under, and in comparison to this current, more mask-off administration.
i do not wish harm or death upon any individual, because honestly, regardless of who we are, we are all going to meet the same fate. Also, long after these evil politicians leave this earth, the ideologies they adhered to (and the policies they enacted) still reverberate. We must organize to destroy the systems which undoubtedly harm us, as opposed to focusing on putting new people in the place of the same system(s). That said, i do not mourn for those who’ve actively and willingly aimed to do harm.
While i do not wish Joseph Biden harm- cancer is a hell unto itself; i am not sad for him, nor will i mourn him when he leaves this earth.
i cannot mourn for a neoliberal who, as senator, has consistently/predominantly supported anti-bussing measures, saying that it would be “a rejection of the whole movement of Black pride”– a quote that seemingly echoes support of African liberation struggles, but with even a cavalier study of his policies understands that the quote is vapid, and a very tricky level of dog whistling. This is a man who also said that “the Black community will walk over coals for me,” and that for any Africans who did not vote for him: “You ain’t Black.” While he claimed to be opposed to some aspects of the finalized version (like the ‘three strikes’ law, or an increase in the funds he proposed to build more prisons), The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (which Biden drafted, Bernie Sanders voted in favor of, and Bill Clinton signed off on– it was also known as ‘Biden’s Crime Law’) undoubtedly negatively impacted African and poor communities in particular, via its ‘war on drugs’, among other things.
No one who was in support of Africans having ‘Black Pride’ would draft a bill (and with little regret, remain proud of that bill) negatively impacting said community. Biden sees Africans as a mere political accessory, as he plays with our lives.
Biden’s other clear anti-African policy is the perpetuation of imperialist and colonialist policies toward Haiti. Many emphasize the current administration’s anti-immigration policies; lest we forget that the Biden administration has perpetuated interventionist, antidemocratic policies, through its support of Prime Minister Ariel Henry (which the masses were opposed to); it also notoriously turned people away who were seeking asylum from the oppression rooted in U.S. imperialism- most famously exemplified by a photo of a border patrol worker on a horse, whip in hand, grabbing a young man.
i cannot mourn for a man who, in 2014 (as vice president) supported a coup which destabilized a democratically elected government in Ukraine, knowingly replacing it with a stronghold of right wing/fascist/neo-nazi factions, still existing to this day.
i cannot mourn for a man who presided over the continual blockade of Cuba.
i cannot mourn for a man who continued to oversee the militaristic interventions which subjugate Africans at home and in the imperial core of the U.S., through AFRICOM and the 1033 Program.
i cannot mourn for a person who has perpetuated and presided over a genocide, saying in 1986 (and repeating it over the years), that Israel “is the best $3 billion investment we make. Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect her interests in the region.”
i cannot mourn for a person who either voted for, or heavily supported the destabilization/destruction (via NATO) of Syria, Libya and Serbia, among other places, while continuing to negotiate and refusing to see a ‘red line’ with Israel.
i cannot mourn for the textbook liberalism of a man who tolerated the open white supremacy of people like Robert Byrd and Strum Thurmond, and spoke of them positively.
i cannot mourn for a man who stayed spouting gems over the years such as this:
- “We’ve got to recognize that the kid wearing a hoodie may very well be the next poet laureate and not a gangbanger.”
- “In Delaware the largest growth in population is Indian Americans. You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking.”
- About Barack Obama: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
- “They’re saying, ‘Jeez, the reason I was able to stay sequestered in my home is because some Black woman was able to stack the grocery shelf.”
- “Poor kids are just as bright and talented as white kids… Wealthy kids, black kids, Asian kids.”
And getting back to Biden’s opposition to busing, instead opting for an “orderly integration of society”; of course in a statement that can be taken as a literal example of the white moderates’ ‘appeal to reason’ Martin Luther King Jr. lamented in his Letter from Birmingham Jail, he says that “I am not just talking about education but all of society.”
He adds: “Unless we do something about this, my children are going to grow up in a jungle, the jungle being a racial jungle with tensions having built so high that it is going to explode at some point.”
Joseph R. Biden will leave this earth eventually, like any of us. The difference between him and the majority of all the others whose lives he has negatively impacted through his policies, is his legacy of genocide, subjugation and mass death.
Therefore, i will not mourn him.
Overjobbed and Underworked 