Joe Biden Tells How He Learned About Black People
Written by Andria on June 28, 2017
You’ll never guess where he got a job to learn more about Black people.
Joe Biden worked as a lifeguard at a public pool in a predominately Black neighborhood in Delaware to learn about Black people.
During a renaming ceremony on Monday for the pool Biden worked at he told his story about what it was like to work at that pool during the 60’s.
He credits this job for his increased and first hand experience with race relations.
“I wanted to get more involved,” he said. “I’d turn on the television and I’d see and listen to Dr. (Martin Luther) King and others, but I didn’t know any black people. So, I wanted to work here.” Biden also said that the other lifeguards who he worked with “treated me as an equal.”
He continued, “They’d ask me questions — because I really was the only white guy they really knew — about things that just startled me. I remember one lifeguard asked if I had a five-gallon can for gasoline. I said ‘No I don’t. But what do you need it for?’ He said, ‘I’m going down to see my grandmom in North Carolina. We can’t stop at most gas stations. They won’t let us stop at most gas stations.’ I learned a lot.”
