Less than a day after announcing his second presidential bid, Senator Joe Biden committed an error that may cost him the election. When asked about Illinois Senator Barack Obama during an interview with the New York Observer, Biden responded by saying:

You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.

Although I understand why someone would be upset at his use of “clean,” I’m a bit surprised that this has been the focus of the public criticism. After all, I seriously doubt that Biden thought that Carol Mosley Braun or Shirley Chisholm didn’t bathe regularly. In fact, I completely accept Biden’s explanation that he used the word “clean” to suggest that Obama was “fresh” and “sharp”. More important to me was Biden’s suggestion that Barack Obama is the first African American who is “articulate and bright and nice looking,” an observation that is not only racist and offensive, but flat-out absurd.

In order to understand the significance of Biden’s remark, we have to consider the way in which the word “articulate” is deployed by White Americans in relation to Black people. Every time I appear on a television program, without fail, I get an email from a White American telling me that they “can’t believe how articulate” or “well-spoken” I am. While I appreciate their gesture, I also understand that their compliment hinges upon a broader conception of Black people as inarticulate and often unintelligent. Given this context, Biden’s intended good will does not negate the patronizing and fundamentally racist character of his words.

Furthermore, to say that Obama is the first articulate candidate is to ignore the profound role that Black politicians have played in spotlighting critical issues through their rhetorical gifts. From Adam Clayton Powell to Alan Keyes, the ability of Black candidates to verbally unpack, interrogate, and elucidate their concerns has often stood in sharp relief to the obfuscating language of many successful mainstream White politicians.

Joe Biden’s unrecognized investment in white privilege is also apparent in his curious comfort with appointing himself the arbiter of articulateness. After all, Jesse Jackson’s 1984 speech at the Democratic National Convention is considered one of the 12 greatest speeches in American history. Biden, on the other hand, bowed out of the 1988 race for stealing one of his speeches from a British labor leader. Twenty years earlier, he was accused of plagiarism in law school. Perhaps if he were more articulate…

Equally disturbing is Biden’s assertion that Obama is the first mainstream candidate who was “smart.” Does he think that Alan Keyes won his Harvard Ph.D. in a dice game? How about Shirley Chisholm’s Master’s degree from Columbia? For those cynics who argue that they weren’t mainstream enough, perhaps they can explain how an “unintelligent” Jesse Jackson gathered 6.9 million votes, won 11 primaries, and earned a strong second place finish during the 1988 presidential election in which Biden quickly imploded.

Lastly, while I’m mildly annoyed at Biden’s implicit suggestion that Obama’s predecessors were unattractive, I’m more interested in how his comments may reflect a broader sensibility among mainstream White Americans. To be sure, Obama’s “attractiveness” in the eyes of many Whites, such as Biden, is at least partially connected to his European features and immediate ancestory. While this may benefit Obama in the short term, this may ultimately alienate him from certain voters in a general election.

Of course, Obama and other Democratic leaders are brushing the incident off as much ado about nothing, pointing to Biden’s stellar voting record on Civil Rights as evidence of miscommunication rather than racism. Similar arguments were made last year, when Biden said that “You cannot go to a 7-11 or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. It’s a point. I’m not joking!” Such a gesture reflects a newfound political pragmatism within a Democratic party that has often snatched defeat from the jaws of victory to its divisive in-fighting. (Besides, why castigate Biden for remarks that most of his colleagues probably agree with?) While I don’t question (or care about) Biden’s intentions, it is nonetheless important that we not dismiss Biden’s remarks as merely an unfortunate snafu. Instead, we must consider it as evidence of a larger problem with regard to how Black politicians are constructed and consumed within the public sphere.