Former President Joe Biden’s ‘coloured kids’ comments cause stir, former leader slammed for ‘racist’ language

Former US President Joe Biden has outraged Americans in his first speech since leaving the White House after making comments about “coloured kids”.

Mr Biden was being presented with an award at the 2025 Conference of Advocates, Counsellors and Representatives for the Disabled.

While speaking, Mr Biden shared a memory of when he was a child, which has since sent the internet into a frenzy after he used offensive and outdated language.

Mr Biden spoke about his move from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Wilmington, Delaware, saying when he got there, saying: “I’d never seen hardly any black people”.

“I was only going in fourth grade,” Mr Biden said.

“And I remember seeing kids going by, at the time called ‘coloured kids,’ on a bus go by — they never turned right to go to Claymont High School.”

Mr Biden explained the separation based on race was what “sparked” his outrage as a child, fuelling his desire to make a difference in the world.

The section of Mr Biden’s near 30-minute-long speech was shared by US President Donald Trump online.

Online, Americans were quick to slam Mr Biden’s comments.

“Go back into hiding pal,” one user wrote.

“Joe Biden has been out of office for three months... And the very first thing he does when he’s back in public is refer to black kids as ‘coloured kids’,” wrote another.

“’Colored kids.’ What a racist geezer,” a third added.

Mr Biden has not issued a statement on his use of the term “coloured kids”.