Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden claimed during a community meeting in Wisconsin on Thursday that a black man invented the light bulb, not “a white guy named Edison.”
Biden made the remarks in the context of calling for a reckoning on racism and urging America to confront its “original sin—slavery—and all the vestiges of it.” He then suggested that historical accounts have been falsified out of racist motives.
“People fear that which is different. Weve got to, for example, why in Gods name dont we teach history in history classes? A black man invented the light bulb, not a white guy named Edison,” Biden said. “Theres so much—did anybody know before what recently happened that Black Wall Street in Oklahoma was burned to the ground? Anybody know these things? Because we dont teach them. Weve got to give people facts. Teach them whats out there.”
Historical records show that while Thomas Edison is universally credited with inventing the light bulb, a black inventor by the name of Lewis Latimer improved on Edisons invention and helped make it available more widely. Latimer, who was a member of Edisons elite research team and himself held multiple patents, created a light bulb that had a more durable carbon filament. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006 for his work on electric filament manufacturing techniques.
Biden visited Kenosha in the wake of unrest that was sparked by the shooting of Jacob Blake in a confrontation with police, during which he was shot multiple times in the back. Blake, who resisted arrest and could not be subdued even after being tased, had a warrant out for his arrest on suspicion of sexual assault.
Protests following the shooting, which left Blake paralyzed from the waist down, devolved into violent riots, which peaked in a tragic incident in which a 17-year-old armed with a semi-automatic rifle shot two people dead and wounded another while being chased and possibly attacked.
Saying that “violence of any form is wrong,” Biden blamed President Donald Trump for inflaming divisions in the country and called for his supporters to step up their efforts to “cut another slice off institutional racism.”
“I dont think we have any alternative but to fight. I dont think we have any alternative but to fight back. I dont think we have any alternative but just to go tell the truth,” Biden said.
In earlier remarks in Pittsburgh, Biden also accused the president of stoking divRead More From Source
