Last month, when the filmmaker Tyler Perry opened a new movie studio in southwest Atlanta, a three-hundred-and-thirty-acre property on the former site of a Confederate Army base, he dedicated it to black entertainment icons. “People,” he said, “who paved the way and motivated and inspired me.” On Wednesday, a soundstage at the studio named after Oprah Winfrey hosted a debate between the top ten contenders for the Democratic Party’s Presidential nomination. The expectation, going in, was that the competitors’ relationship with black and other minority voters would be a focus of the evening. The four candidates currently leading in the polls—Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Pete Buttigieg—are all white, and Warren and Buttigieg, in particular, have faced questions about their ability to attract diverse support. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, who are black, have both made arguments that Democrats should give them a second look in part because they can speak to and for minority voters. But thus far, with the exception of a memorable moment that Harris had in June, critiquing Biden’s past opposition of school busing, race has been a relatively muted topic during the Party’s seemingly endless procession of official debates.

That mutedness carried over for much of Wednesday night, as the candidates engaged in discussions of impeachment, health care, foreign policy, and other topics—largely alternating between talking points and a few moments of tetchiness. Finally, an hour and a half in, the moderators’ questions turned to the topic of race. Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang, two of the longer shots onstage, offered some thoughts on how to address white-supremacist violence. Then Harris was asked if she wanted to elaborate on her recent criticisms of Buttigieg’s outreach to black voters. Buttigieg is now surging in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, two predominantly white early-voting states, while Harris, who was among the front-runners a few months ago, has been struggling to find a way to regain traction. “For too long, candidates have taken for granted constituencies that have been the backbone of the Democratic Party,” she said. “I believe that we have to have leadership in this country who has worked with and have the experience of working with all folks, and we’ve got to re-create the Obama coalition to win.” Harris supporters have long made this argument, that she’s the natural candidate to attract the broad range of support that sent Barack Obama to the White House.

Buttigieg was given a chance to respond. “My response is I completely agree,” he said. “And, before I share what’s in my plans, let me talk about what’s in my heart.” Buttigieg described his time as the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, “a city that is racially diverse,” and alluded to his Christian faith, which he said “teaches me that salvation has to do with how I make myself useful to those who have been excluded, marginalized, and cast aside.” And he spoke of his experience as a gay man. “I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country,” he said. “Turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate.”

This was a healthy debate for the Democratic Party to have: two candidates making their cases—explaining themselves and where they come from—before the voters. Harris can’t quite explain why she’s struggled to assemble the very coalition she touts, but the arguments she made in her favor rang true. Buttigieg’s record on race in South Bend is mixed, but his experience as the first openly gay candidate to mount a major Presidential campaign does have something to contribute to conversations about representation and leadership.

A few moments later, Booker got a chance to speak. “I have a lifetime of experience with black voters,” he said. “I’ve been one since I was eighteen.” This was vintage Booker, using humor to make a delicate subject safe for a broad audience, even at the risk of being corny. He turned to address Biden, who has held on to a persistent lead in the polls among black voters, even as many have questioned how durable that support will prove to be. Booker criticized Biden for saying recently that he still opposes legalizing marijuana on the federal level. “I thought you might have been high when you said it,” Booker said, adding that the issue was about fairness. “Marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people.” Booker made the link between these policies and electability: in 2016, he said, Hillary Clinton lost Wisconsin “because there was a massive diminution in the African-American vote.”

Biden tried to defend himself. He said that he favored decriminalizing marijuana and releasing people serving time for marijuana-related offenses from prison. Then things took a turn. “I’m part of that Obama coalition,” Biden said. “I come out of the black community, in terms of my support. If you notice, I have more people supporting me in the black community that have announced for me, because they know me, they know who I am. Three former chairs of the Black Caucus, the only African-American woman that has ever been elected to the United States Senate. A whole range of people.”

Here, Booker and Harris jumped in. “That’s not true,” Booker said. The audience broke out in laughter and groans, as Harris added, incredulously, “The other one is here.” Someone in the audience shouted something out about reparations, and the moderators announced that it was time for a commercial break.

It’s easy to imagine what Biden meant: Carol Moseley Braun, the former Illinois senator and the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate, endorsed him earlier this year. But in the moment, it sounded like the former Vice-President had forgotten that the second black woman elected to the Senate was standing just a few feet from him. This kind of flub—where, even if the meaning is somewhat clear, it’s impossible to excuse what he actually said—has happened to Biden before. “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids,” he said in Iowa, in August. These statements are part of why people have wondered about Biden’s ability to hold on to support from any group of voters. Taken together, they are the kind of public show of political weakness that a primary process is set up to weed out.