On Wednesday (February 15), President Joe Biden called Maryland’s first black Governor, Gov. Wes Moore, a “boy” while addressing an audience of IBEW union workers.
During his opening remarks, Biden commented on Moore being a newcomer, telling the audience they have “a hell of a new governor in Wes Moore.” His comments elicited applause.
He followed that by describing the Maryland Democrat as “the real deal” before calling him “boy” when saying Moore “looked like he could still play. He got some guns on him.”
Moore isn’t the first person Biden called boy; he has done it before nonchalantly with White individuals.
An example of this is when he described Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) as a “boy” in a speech he made last October.
During the speech, Biden noted that Coons held the seat he once had in the Senate, saying that the only difference between the two was that Coon had a law degree and a divinity degree before exclaiming, “The boy can preach.”
Earlier in April, Biden also called former U.S. Secretary of the Army, Patrick Murphy, who is also White, a “boy” while making remarks about the Safer America Plan.
While referring to Murphy, he described the former U.S. Army Secretary as “boy” before commending him for staying in shape.
However, given the historical context of calling a Black man “boy,” the term can also be a derogatory term.
In the Jim Crow era, White people would use the word to belittle and demean Black men, irrespective of age.
However, Biden has come under scrutiny before for using derogatory terms to describe Black Americans.
He once referred to a Black advisor as “boy” earlier in his Presidency.
During his time as a Senator, Biden called then-Senator Barack Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean.”
