Behind Joe Biden's Pardon Of Marcus Garvey
The Manipulation Of Black People
Happiness. Relief. Satisfaction. These are the reactions worldwide of the recent pardon of the Honorable Marcus Garvey by the departing US president Joe Biden. Black people in general, especially Jamaicans, for whom he is a National Hero, have always regarded Garvey’s conviction and imprisonment by the US government for mail fraud as unjustified and a conspiracy by the US authorities.
Accordingly, the Jamaican government via Prime Minister Holness hailed outgoing United States President Joe Biden’s decision to grant the but noted it was only a “first step” in rectifying a historical injustice against one of the most influential civil rights leaders and Pan-africanists in history. According to Holness:
“The removal of the unjust stain on Marcus Garvey’s name restores the full dignity and honour he has always deserved as a champion of freedom, empowerment, and equality,”
Will America remove the stain Garvey?
The mainstream media in America have suggested that Joe Biden was being honest and high-minded when he authorized Garvey’s pardon. According to the Washington Post (WAPO):
This was under a banner headline praising Garvey as a revolutionary.
But the sub-text was equally important. Biden was doing this for naked political reasons, i.e. to emphasize “his presidency’s ties with the Black community”, ties which, by the way, Biden and the Democrats have been losing, according to data comparing the 2020 and 2024 elections and summarized by perplexity.ai:
“In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden received approximately 90% of the Black vote. In contrast, during the 2024 election, Kamala Harris secured about 80% of the Black vote, which represents a decrease of 10 percentage points from Biden's 2020 performance”.
Even in 2020, although Biden won about 90 percent of Black voters, he performed worse among that group than Clinton or Obama.
Based on the voting trends, it seems Black American voters have had growing doubts about Biden’s sincerity when it comes to the Black community. Joe Biden's legislative history includes several actions that have been criticized for their impact on Black communities, particularly through his involvement in crime and education policies.
1994 Crime Bill: Joe Biden was a key sponsor of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, often referred to as the crime bill. This legislation is frequently criticized for contributing to mass incarceration, particularly affecting Black Americans. The bill included provisions for mandatory minimum sentences and funding for prison construction, which critics argue led to increased incarceration rates among minority communities.
Anti-Drug Abuse Act: Biden also played a role in crafting the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which established the 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. This disparity disproportionately affected Black communities, as crack cocaine was more prevalent in these areas.
Anti-Busing Legislation: In the 1970s, Biden opposed school busing as a means of achieving racial integration. He co-authored legislation that limited federal courts' ability to order busing for desegregation, which was seen as undermining efforts to integrate schools. Critics argue that his stance on busing was aligned with segregationist policies and hindered educational equality.
It is not merely legislative action as a senator which makes a mockery of Biden’s supposed empathy for the “revolutionary” Marcus Garvey but relatively recent racial remarks and statements that betrays his mindset.
For example, during a 2020 interview, he suggested that Black voters who were undecided between him and Donald Trump were not truly Black. Additionally, he has been criticized for comments that imply homogeneity within the Black community (which is just as racist as a Black man saying all White Europeans or all Chinese are the same and should each vote as a bloc).
Despite this long history of Biden’s actions that treated Blacks disparately or had a disparate impact, according to the 19th January WAPO article “Biden’s presidency has been closely tied to issues of racial equity” but a few lines later they highlighted:
“Pardons and clemency have also been a hallmark of Biden’s presidency, especially in its final days”.
Yep, pardons have been a “hallmark” of Bidens presidency starting with the dodgy pardon of his son Hunter on the eve of his conviction. On 1st December, the president issued a "full and unconditional pardon" for his son, Hunter Biden. The pardon covers any federal crimes Hunter Biden may have committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024, including his convictions for federal gun charges and tax evasion. Hunter Biden was facing sentencing for illegally purchasing and possessing a firearm and for tax-related offenses, which involved unpaid taxes amounting to $1.4 million. The pardon effectively nullified any possibility of imprisonment for these offenses.
In a statement, the US president defended his decision to grant clemency to his son, asserting that Hunter was “being selectively and unfairly prosecuted.” However, the scope of the presidential pardon extends back to January 2014, just months before Hunter joined the board of Burisma Holdings - a company often tied to allegations of Biden family influence-peddling.
This decision came as a surprise, as Biden had previously stated he would not use his executive powers to pardon his son or reduce his sentence. Check out the video below.
After the hue and cry about Hunter’s pardon, in the days that followed Joe Biden announced a slew of pardons:
December 12, 2024: Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 individuals placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoned 39 individuals convicted of non-violent crimes.
December 23, 2024: The sentences of 37 federal death row inmates were commuted to life imprisonment without parole.
Topping it off, January 20, 2025: In his final hours in office, Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, members of Congress involved in the January 6 inquiry, and police officers who testified before the January 6th Select Committee. In effect Biden prospectively pardoned his family and many dodgy officials associated with his Administration prior to any charges being laid against them.
The evidence clearly suggests that the former President was on a sordid campaign to prevent criminal prosecution of his son and immediate family. It seems to me Garvey’s pardon as well as that of other civil rights activists was merely the political cover he needed especially among the Democrats.
The false promise of exoneration
Despite the evidence of Biden’s prevarications about pardons, especially when it came to his family, there are some Jamaicans and Black people in general who truly believe that Joe Biden pardoned Garvey out of the goodness of his heart.
Take the Jamaica’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Curtis Ward, for example. According to the Jamaica Gleaner he made the following statement:
As exemplified by Prime Minister Holness, there is much hope among the politicians and their ‘wannabes’ that Garvey will eventually be exonerated. They are promoting the idea among Jamaicans that exoneration will make a difference to Garvey’s historical status among Black people in general and Jamaicans in general. These are the very politicians, of both major political parties, who, despite the 1969 designation of Garvey as a National Hero, have done very little to instill Garvey’s philosophy of self-reliance and black pride in the hearts and minds of the nation’s youth. In the previously mentioned 19th January edition of the Jamaica Gleaner, they quote Professor Rupert Lewis, a specialist on Garvey and Garveyism as follows:
“No Jamaican Government has taken the teaching of the philosophy of Garvey seriously in schools. We have inserted biographical details, but biographical details are no substitute for the philosophy of Marcus Garvey,”
The same newspaper report observes that the only existing initiative is by a private foundation which has had a pilot project approved to teach Garveyism in 22 early childhood institutions, 24 primary schools, and is standing by to access 22 high schools, targeting grade seven students (note the total of such schools in Jamaica are in the thousands).
“There is no government subventions or anything like that. It is private. It’s people of like mind supporting us to get the material we need.”
Once again we are seeing the mythic, heroic memory of Marcus Garvey resurrected to meet the political needs of contemporary politicians. My first experience was in 1969 when Garvey was declared the 1st National Hero of Jamaica. Expressions of joy and happiness exploded in Jamaica. Since then various political figures and entertainers have found it useful to identify with Garvey to burnish their image while promising to redeem Garvey’s name. Joe Biden is simply the latest chapter in a sordid book on how to manipulate Black people.
Pardon my skepticism but I doubt any change is imminent. What do you think, dear reader?