Former Vice President and now 2020 primary candidate Joe Biden has yet again come under fire for his inability to never stop saying or doing something controversial. This time it was for reminiscing about the times of “civility politics”. With segregationists. Not just any run of the mill bigots either. Herman Talmadge and James Eastland were so passionate about their hatred and cruelty towards black people that they’re best known for threatening to shut down any schools that dared to integrate or for inciting full on violence in the most barbaric ways.

This is the type of person Joe Biden misses working with.

Biden somehow managed to take the insensitivity up a notch by talking about how Eastland always called him “son” and never “boy”. There have been calls for Biden to apologize for being out of touch, including from Cory Booker, the New Jersey Senator and other 2020 hopeful. The calls were unfortunately fell on deaf ears as Joe Biden, in typical fashion, took an already irreparable situation and made it even worse by calling for Booker to apologize to him.

He knows better. There’s not a racist bone in my body. I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career. — Joe Biden

Not long after Booker went into deep detail about how hurtful the weight of Biden’s words are along the tone of voice he used.

In the wake of Biden’s idiotic comments, Democratic leadership has signaled that they want to sweep to situation under the rug and called for candidates to “cool it on the attacks” in fears that a circular firing squad of criticism would deservedly form around him. And some democrats unfortunately seem to have no problem abiding with the call in all its stupidity. This past weekend alone there have been several horrible defenses of the candidate's horrible comments from major voices in the party. These voices included Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and even Georgia Representative and prominent Civil Rights activist John Lewis. All four of these individuals have some of the most major influence over the Democratic party. Their words and stances matter to many people including myself, which is why it was infuriating to see them practically bend over backwards to avoid saying what needs to be said about Joe Biden.

For Tulsi Gabbard it seems that she full on has no idea just what it was that Joe Biden said that was so hurtful. She directly calls out Warren and Kamala Harris saying that the president must find common ground with people we abhor. These comments come off as very naive for the congresswoman of color when you remember that the other side made it abundantly clear that there’s no common ground to be found with them. A lesson she should take into consideration. Her refusal to acknowledge that Biden did in fact coddle segregationists and even happily worked alongside them is also something I hope that she learns before speaking on the issue again.

John Lewis seemed to have a similar response to the situation, highlighting that he took no offense to Biden’s comments and recalled that he got to know many bigots when he was on the front lines of the movement for Civil Rights and that he never gave up on his fellow human being. As much as I honor Mr. Lewis for everything he’s done to ensure that I have a future in this country worth living, it’s extremely saddening to hear him take this stance. Monsters that have the same ideology as James Eastland have no good intentions towards any minorities and the idea that you can “work with”, “get to know”, or humanize racists is a myth that shouldn’t ever be perpetuated by anyone. Some people deserve to be given up on.

Elizabeth Warren’s take was unsurprisingly a non-stance which fits with her usual practice of timidness during a controversy. When asked about the issue at Jim Clyburn’s annual fish fry, she explained that she was not there to criticize other Democrats, despite literally making headlines for criticizing the very same one just two months ago. Her constant subservience to Democratic establishment directly contradicts her reputation as the fighter she paints herself as.

Bernie Sanders was the only one out of the four to actually call for Biden to apologize. Unfortunately, Sanders couldn’t go all the way and call Biden what he is, thus making the strongest critique this weekend still weak.

Which begs the question: Why are so many major Democrats failing on the issue of confronting bigotry within the party? Look past all the mythological nostalgia and funny memes of the Obama era that surround Joe Biden. He’s not your goofy uncle or some national treasure, he represents the ugliest part of America’s racist history that allows white supremacists to be hailed as saints and statesmen because they politely say or do something bigoted. As much as I detest Cory Booker for his inability to call Trump a racist himself despite having more than a few words for Ilhan Omar and Kamala Harris’s own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad record with people of color, they’re right. And they seem to be the only candidates besides Mike Gravel that are correctly speaking on how offensive Joe Biden can be.

Senators and Congresspeople, there’s no need to be coy about it. And there’s no need to look weak on racism in the Democratic Party when there’s no need to. The actions and behavior of Joe Biden don’t need to be rationalized and you shouldn’t mince words so you can avoid calling him what he is:a full fledged, unapologetic, racist. Between his segregationist ties, his treatment of Anita Hill and his major role in passing the 1990s Crime Bill, this shouldn’t have to even be a controversial take among candidates. Biden is one of the most prominent architects and lobbyists of the legislature that allowed police officers to go to war on communities and people of color the way you see today. Everything he used to rationalize the crime bill has allowed police to do to African Americans what he falsely predicted that minorities would do to whites.

A speech that’s reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s calls to bring “Super predators to heel”

Joe Biden is a racist and it deserves to be screamed to the heavens by Cory Booker on the debate stage tonight and every candidate tomorrow night that shares the stage with Biden and is serious about tackling systemic racism.

There’s a reason he hasn’t won a single primary since 1988. His campaign of limited exposure won’t save him now, and Democrats are doing themselves no favor shielding him from judgement.