PHILADELPHIA — If you have listened to any of the handful of speeches that President Joe Biden has given to black universities, communities, or schools in the past few weeks as his black support has eroded, you would think in just the past few years we had never had the first black president of the United States, vice president, or secretary of defense, or that any person of color had achieved much in the world until Biden became president.

You would also be led to believe that the last president, Donald Trump, wanted to “tear-gas you as you peacefully protested George Floyd’s murder,” as Biden said yesterday here at the historic Girard College, a high-performing high school in this city whose student body is majority black.