Black Entertainment Television (BET) co-founder Robert Johnson called Joe Biden “arrogant and out of touch” after the presumptive Democratic nominee said in a Friday radio interview that “you ain’t black” if you vote for President Trump.
The former vice president made the comment that he later apologized for to radio host Charlamagne tha God while defending his record on issues impacting the black community.
Johnson, who co-founded BET in 1980, also suggested that Biden “should spend the rest of his campaign apologizing to every black person he meets.”
“Vice President Biden’s statement today represents the arrogant and out-of-touch attitude of a paternalistic white candidate who has the audacity to tell black people, the descendants of slaves, that they are not black unless they vote for him,” Johnson told Fox News. “This proves unequivocally that the Democratic nominee believes that black people owe him their vote without question, even though we as black people know it is exactly the opposite.”
“He should spend the rest of his campaign apologizing to every black person he meets,” Johnson added.
Biden apologized later Friday after considerable blowback, with #YouAintBlack and #JoeBidenIsARacist being top trending topics on social media.
“I’ve never ever taken the African American community for granted,” Biden said. “I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy. I shouldn’t have been so cavalier. I don’t take it for granted at all, and no one, no one should have to vote for any party based on their race or religion or background.”
Charlamagne tha God is a popular African American radio host based at New York’s Power 105.1.
His program, “The Breakfast Club,” is particularly popular with black millennials.
Rolling Stone dubbed the 41-year-old, whose real name is Lenard Larry McKelvey, “hip-hop’s Howard Stern” in 2014.