Sunday, February 04, 2007

biden's inarticulate comments

Lynette Clemetson in today's New York Times reviews some of the loaded history of the word "articulate" when applied to a black person, following in the wake of Joe Biden's mangled, inarticulate, and inartful attempt to praise Barack Obama.

As Clemetson advises, don't use "articulate" to praise a black person if you wouldn't use that word about a similar white (or presumably, other ethnic) person.

And as for Biden, this is his biggest screw-up since he was caught plagiarizing British Labour Party Leader Neil Kinnock. Maybe he shouldn't run for President again after all...