Rare for an inaugural speech, President Joe Biden has issued a strong repudiation of white supremacy and domestic terrorism seen on the rise under Donald Trump.
In his speech on Wednesday, Biden denounced “racism, nativism, fear, demonization”, which sparked the attack on the Capitol by an overwhelming crowd of Trump supporters who carried symbols of hatred, including the Confederate battle flag.
“A cry for racial justice for about 400 years has driven us,” said Biden in the nearly 23-minute speech that promises to heal a divided nation. “A cry that cannot be more desperate or more clear. And now an increase in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must face and will defeat. “
Compared to his immediate predecessors, three of whom attended Wednesday’s inauguration, Biden is the first president to directly address the evils of white supremacy in an inaugural speech. In his second inaugural speech in 1997, ex-President Bill Clinton called racial divisions as “America’s constant curse”, but did not even point to the culprits.
Biden’s words follow months of protests and civil unrest over police brutality against black Americans, as well as a broader assessment of the systemic and institutional racism that has plagued non-white Americans for generations.
“To be quite clear, it was incredibly powerful,” Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, a national racial justice organization, told the Associated Press. “We must not underestimate the cultural change that had to take place, for this to happen on one of the largest political stages in the world.”
“I think it is really important that, as a result of our movement, racial justice has become a major issue this summer,” added Robinson. “Now, work begins on translating this rhetorical question into a question of government.”
Biden made his inaugural speech on the same platform that the rebel mob climbed two weeks ago to break into the Capitol building, vandalizing federal properties and taking selfies on the Senate floor. The riot left at least five people dead, including a Capitol police officer.
The rioters, some defending racist and anti-Semitic views and conspiracy theories, were prompted by baseless allegations of widespread electoral fraud in the November presidential election. Some tried to stop Congress from certifying the results of the Electoral College, in which black and Latin voters played a significant role in delivering the victory to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Repression of voters, along with other forms of systemic racism, is a priority for civil rights groups and supporters of the Black Lives Matter, which last year became the largest protest movement in the history of the United States.
“Overcoming these challenges, restoring the soul and securing America’s future requires much more than words,” said Biden in his speech. “It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy. Unity.”
Biden also highlighted the historic nature of the oath of Harris, the first woman and the first black and South Asian woman to hold that office.
“It is exciting to see a black woman become vice president, but we must hold her and President Biden responsible for ensuring black liberation and the eradication of white supremacy,” said Patrisse Cullors, co-founder and executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation from the Web.
“We must heal ourselves from anti-black racism and the strong economic and health impacts of COVID-19,” said Cullors in a statement. “So, we can focus on a prosperous black life through investments in health, education, housing and environmental justice.”
Biden began to address some of these issues in a series of executive orders signed after the inauguration.
They order federal agencies to prioritize racial equality and review policies that reinforce systemic racism, which the BLM foundation said mirrors a proposal contained in the BREATHE Act, proposed legislation advocated by the foundation and the Movement for Black Lives. It calls for extensive federal reforms, including a review of the police, the criminal justice system and immigration.
Susan Rice, Biden’s new internal policy advisor, said the new president would also revoke Trump’s recently issued “1776 Commission” report that downplayed slavery’s historic legacy. The commission was created in response to The New York Times ‘Project 1619’, which highlights the long-term consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans.
Biden’s comments also came a day after the country marked another dark milestone, surpassing 400,000 deaths in the United States as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic disproportionately killed black Americans and other people of color and revealed longstanding racial disparities in the country’s health care system.
“We are entering what could be the most difficult and deadly period of the virus,” said Biden. “We must put politics aside and finally face this pandemic as a nation.”
In his speech, Biden invoked Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, pledging to free Africans enslaved during the Civil War.
“When he put the pen down on paper, the president said, and quoted: ‘If my name goes down in history, it will be by this act and my soul will be in it. My whole soul is in it, ‘”said Biden.
“Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in it,” he declared.
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Stafford reported from Detroit and Morrison reported from New York City.
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Stafford and Morrison are members of the AP Race & Ethnicity team. Follow Morrison on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison. Follow Stafford on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kat__stafford.