A Word: Can He Get an Amen?

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4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Biden’s campaign kick-off speech at the historic Mother Emanuel AME church in South Carolina was interrupted by protesters this week. It was an awkward moment that provoked a lot of debate on social media about whether demonstrators were abusing the spirit of the Black church, or honoring it. It also revived questions about whether Democratic candidates’ reliance on the Black church is still an effective strategy in motivating African American voters. On today’s episode of A Word, Jason Johnson is joined by veteran journalist Errin Haines to discuss whether President Biden and Democratic leaders are misunderstanding the strengths and the limits of the Black church as a political stage. Guest: Errin Haines, founding mother and editor-at-large for The 19th* Podcast production by Ahyiana Angel You can skip all the ads in A Word by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/awordplus for $15 for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a word a podcast from slate. I'm your host Jason Johnson. President Joe
0:06.1	Biden got an unpleasant surprise this week when his speech at a historic
0:10.3	lecture was interrupted by protesters. Is there a larger
0:14.0	lesson about what Biden and other white Democrats misunderstand about the
0:18.4	Black Church and black voters in 2024? It was a Black Church that helped to usher in the Voting Rights
0:24.5	Act of 1965, the Black Church that was central to the civil rights movement and
0:29.2	so we know that there is and has been a relationship between the black church and small
0:34.1	the democracy. Democrats and the black church coming up on a word with me
0:38.2	Jason Johnson stay with us. Welcome to a word, a podcast about race and politics and everything else.
0:53.0	I'm your host, Jason Johnson, with his overall poll number sagging,
0:57.0	President Joe Biden traveled to the historic Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston,
1:01.4	South Carolina this week, to deliver a major campaign speech.
1:05.0	That's the location of one of the most infamous massacres of the modern era.
1:09.0	Where in 2015 Dylan Ruth murdered nine worshipers who welcome him to an evening Bible study.
1:15.3	In his remarks, Biden framed himself as guarding democracy against the dangers of a
1:19.8	potential second Trump term and fighting white supremacist ideology that led to the murders at
1:25.2	Mother Emanuel. But then this happened.
1:28.4	Without the truth, there's no light. Without light, there's no path from this darkness. fire and ballastime. She's right now. That's all right.
1:47.0	That's all right.
1:48.0	That's all right.
1:49.0	That's all right.
1:50.0	She's right.
	...

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