Former Vice President Joe Biden, accused by a number of women of making them uncomfortable by invading their personal space, had the opportunity to make amends, but instead he said the following, “I’m sorry I didn’t understand more. I’m not sorry for anything that I have ever done.”
He continued, “I’ve never been disrespectful intentionally to any man or woman. That’s not the reputation I have had since I was in high school.”
What does it mean for Joe Biden to not apologize and to basically say he never does anything wrong? I wonder how he got to this state of perfection. According to his statement, he had achieved it by high school. Yet, when he addressed the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers shortly after he made this astounding statement, he made a joke about getting permission to hug the president of the union, making light of the accusations and the experience of the women. The audience laughed and Biden was all smiles.
Joe Biden was born in 1942 and served in the Senate from 1973 to 2009, when he became vice president. He served for 36 continuous years starting when he 30 years old, one of the youngest members to be elected to the Senate. Was he always right about everything? Did he act totally appropriately during all this time as a public servant?
What does that say about him that he can’t admit to being wrong? Recognition that we have done something wrong and acknowledging it is crucial to personal growth and maturity, particularly for those who have privilege and power by virtue of our membership in dominant groups.
As a white person, I have thought, done, and said some racist things, and through the generosity of people of color who told me what my words and actions meant to them, I learned about my privilege, my whiteness. As a middle class person, I have also held some views and acted in ways that were offensive to working class and poor people, but I learned and was able to change that behavior as well.
This kind of learning exposes what we cannot see because of our social position blinds us to our privilege and the lives of others who do not have it. This learning is lifelong and it is often painful and difficult to look at ourselves in this way. However, the result is not only that I am less offensive to others, but I know myself better — the good and the bad.
Joe Biden’s absolute denial of any wrongdoing toward others is unbelievable and, despite all of their differences, strikingly like the behavior of the current occupant of the White House.
A look at Joe Biden’s record reveals something quite different from the picture of virtue and goodness that he presents. Early in his political career, he was against the integration of schools. I don’t have to wonder too long about how black parents and students felt about that position.
He has consistently been against federal funding of abortions, denying poor women access to a procedure women with means can easily obtain.
Those of us old enough to have watched Joe Biden preside over the Senate confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas do not have a sanguine view of him. Anita Hill was consistently disrespected. An air of snickering prevailed in the chamber even in the face of her amazing dignity while testifying about the abuse and humiliation she suffered from her then boss, Clarence Thomas. She came forward because she felt a responsibility as a citizen who knew the man who was a harasser and might become, and did become, a justice on the highest court on the land.
Under Joe Biden’s chairmanship, the committee promised other witnesses that they could testify, but after traveling to Washington they were sent home without being able to tell their story. Clarence Thomas was protected by a confirmation hearing that was a panel of white men.
Was Biden’s role in the passage of the Violence Against Women Act a way to say “I’m sorry” without acknowledging his nefarious role in those hearings?
What does it say about white masculinity that it is OK that Joe Biden says he never did anything wrong and never apologizes? Some people who think he did the wrong thing defend him nevertheless by saying he is from another era. What does it say that a man who was vice president of the country can be deemed to be so out of touch that he is unaware of what women have been saying about the integrity of our bodies and our personal space for close to 50 years?
Is he so tone deaf that he has not heard what the courageous women who have recently come forward in the #MeToo movement have been saying? White men — old and young — get a pass for one reason or another.
Apologies are complicated. People can say they are sorry for many reasons other than genuine regret. “On Apology,” a wonderful book exploring the complications of apologizing, by Aaron Lazare, the late dean of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, gives the following definition of a genuine apology, “Apology is more than an acknowledgement of an offense together with an expression of remorse. It is an ongoing commitment by the offending party to change [their] behavior . . . it is a method of social healing that has grown in importance as our way of living together on our planet undergoes radical change.”
Joe Biden has not even taken step one.
Arlene Avakian is a professor emeritus in the Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.