Vice President Joe Biden explains to a group of supporters new overtime rules, Wednesday, May 18, 2016 in Columbus, Ohio. | AP Photo Biden urges 'uncomfortable' conversation about racism

Institutional racism is still a problem in the United States, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday, adding that he offered “no apologies” for speaking out on the issue.

Addressing the National Urban League’s 13th annual legislative policy conference in Washington, Biden remarked upon “the overwhelming problems of the legacy of institutional racism which we still live with.”


“No one wants to say that. I know I sometimes speak out too loudly, sometimes, but I make no apologies for it,” Biden said. “Sometimes it’s uncomfortable, but these are uncomfortable times. We’ve got to shake the status quo a little bit. You know, we see this institutional racism today in voting, in children’s education, in the very makeup of our neighborhoods, housing patterns, employment, transportation, access to transportation.”

Biden noted the role of the federal government over the years in tackling institutional racism, including the Great Society programs under President Lyndon B. Johnson.

“So nobody argues today that malnutrition doesn’t affect mental development and capability,” Biden said. “And so, the irony here is that when the president and I took office, you all know the economy was in freefall.”

That “freefall,” Biden said, “was particularly bad for poor folk and particularly bad for African-American and Hispanic poor folk.”

Biden pointed to the importance of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and subsequent administration investment in historically black colleges and universities and inner-city schools, in particular, during his speech.

Remarking that while at one time, “urban sprawl” was a concern, millennials moving into urban areas at record numbers has meant more of a “jobs sprawl.”

“Our folks are in cities. You have a disproportionate share of African-Americans living in cities who do not own an automobile,” Biden said. “You can’t have a job if you can’t get there to the interview. So we’ve put a lot of money into transportation, meaning everything from streetcars to buses to rail transit, connecting inner cities to the suburbs.”

Americans, he said, “can't pretend that children of different races have the same opportunities” and must not lower expectations.

“I’ll be here with you pushing the next president to level the playing field,” Biden said in closing, after remarking, “I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do” after leaving office, joking that he would need “career advice from some of you.”