This post was originally published on Word In Black
Defending democracy, calling for a bipartisan border deal, and touting his job-creating economy took center-stage in President Biden’s third State of the Union address.
And a week after hundreds of faith leaders marched on the White House demanding a cease-fire, Biden spoke of the Palestinian death toll in Gaza for the first time.“This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom are not Hamas,” he said. “Thousands and thousands are innocent women and children. Children also orphaned. Nearly 2 million more Palestinians under bombardment or displaced. Homes destroyed, neighborhoods in rubble, cities in ruin. Families without food, water, medicine. It’s heartbreaking. We’ve been working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire that would last for at least six weeks.”
The other elephant in the room? His age. By going off script and swiftly turning the tables on heckling from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, Biden gave a side-eye to speculation about his mental sharpness. Toward the end of his speech, he addressed the nonstop chatter about his age head-on. “The issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are. It’s how old our ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas,” he said.
But with Kamala Harris, the first Black woman vice president, sitting behind him, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman Supreme Court justice, listening from the audience, Biden also leaned into five crucial issues that directly affect the lives and livelihoods of Black America:
Education
Biden called for increasing HBCU funding — and that’s certainly long overdue. As Fedrick C. Ingram, the Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, recently pointed out in an op-ed for Word In Black, “The HBCU network of more than 100 schools does an incredible job for our community, matriculating 10% of all Black students and graduating half of the nation’s Black doctors, lawyers, and teachers.”
However, wrote Ingram, “a 2023 Department of Education report found that HBCUs in 16 states have been underfunded by some $12 billion.”
Biden asked for resources to ensure “that every child learns to read by third grade,” and decried the banning of books — which negatively impact Black children. He also called out the inaction of Congress on banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — a move that could help prevent another mass school shooting.
“I’m also connecting businesses and high schools so students get hands-on experience and a path to a good-paying job whether or not they go to college,” he said.
Economy
Biden touted the roughly $138 billion in student loan debt he’s canceled so far. But as Word In Black finance reporter Bria Overs previously reported, “An estimated 40% of Black graduates have student loan debt, averaging $52,000” — so the issue is a hot topic among voters.
Biden also reminded Americans of the “historic job growth and small business growth for Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans,” under his watch, and pointed out that “the racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.”
READ MORE: These Experts Want Reparations to Close the Racial Wealth Gap
Health
“Americans pay more for prescription drugs than anywhere in the world. It’s wrong, and I’m ending it,” he said. He’s right: Drugs in the U.S. are two to four times higher than in other nations, putting millions of Americans at risk for worsened health conditions, hospitalizations, and death.
He reminded Congress and the nation that he’s already empowered Medicare to cap insulin at $35 per month for seniors. “We finally beat Big Pharma,” he said. His next plans? To cap insulin for all Americans and expand Medicare’s negotiating power from 20 drugs per year to 50.
RELATED: The Horrifying Reality for Black People With Chronic Pain
Climate Justice
Biden didn’t mention climate justice-related issues in the first half of his speech even though 2023 was the hottest year in recorded history, the effects of climate change hit Black folks and other people of color hardest, and a 2023 Brookings poll found Black voters care about climate change more than abortion or democracy.
“The President did make a bit of environmental news, however: he announced that the American Climate Corps, the green-jobs training program he started last fall through an executive order, will triple in size by 2030 — from 20,000 people to 60,000,” explains Word In Black climate justice reporter Willy Blackmore. “And as has been the subtext to the program from the beginning, that will mean a lot more young Black and brown Americans setting out on green careers in the coming years.”
Voting Rights
What else stood out? A strong emphasis on voting rights.
Biden made it a point to honor the sacrifices made in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 by noting that he was giving his speech on the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday — and he put modern efforts to strip voting rights firmly in the spotlight.
To start off, Biden acknowledged singer and civil rights activist Bettie Mae Fike, known as the “Voice of Selma” was in attendance.
“A daughter of gospel singers and preachers, she sang songs of prayer and protest on that Bloody Sunday, to help shake the nation’s conscience. Five months later, the Voting Rights Act was signed into law,” he said.
But, “59 years later, there are forces taking us back in time. Voter suppression. Election subversion. Unlimited dark money. Extreme gerrymandering,” Biden said. “John Lewis was a great friend to many of us here. But if you truly want to honor him and all the heroes who marched with him, then it’s time for more than just talk. Pass and send me the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act!”
What exactly is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act?
The legislation named after Rep. Lewis, would restore the ability of the federal government to challenge and block discriminatory local or state election regulations. Passing the legislation — which was first introduced in 2021 — has been consistently blocked by Republicans in Congress.
Lewis, who led 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge — and was beaten so brutally by law enforcement officers that his skull was fractured — worked tirelessly until his death in 2020 at age 80 to restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965. A 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the case Shelby County v. Holder gutted the landmark civil rights legislation.
As the N.A.A.C.P. Legal Defense Fund explains on its website, the Shelby County v Holder “ruling immobilized the preclearance process Section 5 that had for decades protected Black voters and other voters of color from racial discrimination.”
Preclearance required “states, counties, cities, and towns with histories of racial discrimination in voting to submit all proposed voting changes to the U.S. Department of Justice (U.S. DOJ) or a federal court in Washington.”
That meant there could be no changes “to their voting systems without pre-approval. For decades, preclearance protected voters and blocked discriminatory voting changes.”
In a statement after Biden’s speech, Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell, a Selma native and the author of the legislation named in Lewis’ honor, acknowledged the significance of the anniversary.
“I am particularly grateful that President Biden acknowledged the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and called on Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Sewell said.
The scope of the assault on voting is certainly staggering. In 2023 alone, “at least 322 restrictive bills were introduced in 45 states,” according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
As Sewell pointed out, we’re living in a time “when many are working to roll back our hard-fought rights and freedoms.”
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