HOUSTON — For many Americans watching the Democratic debate on Thursday night, Joe Biden’s “record player” comment was yet another sign of his age. But to others, his suggestion that black parents “don’t know quite what to do” with their children was a worrying instance of the former vice president being tone-deaf on race.

In a question on racism in the United States, moderator Linsey David asked Biden, 76: “In a conversation about how to deal with segregation in schools back in 1975, you told a reporter, ‘I don’t feel responsible for the sins of my father and grandfather. I feel responsible for what the situation is today, for the sins of my own generation, and I’ll be damned if I feel responsible to pay for what happened 300 years ago.'”