Anti-Xenophobic Rhetoric
Biden believes that racism in the US is a white problem, and blames Trump for this
In his inaugural address, President Biden said that under his empathetic leadership, the dream of racial justice, which has been taking shape for 400 years, "will no longer be postponed." Biden's early presidency has been disrupted by a series of deadly police shootings of blacks, a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans, and a pandemic that continues to hit communities of color particularly hard. According to experts, these events led Biden to act more aggressively in the months that followed. And a number of his actions were blatantly demonstrative. Thus, for the first time in history, he appointed a Native American woman as secretary of the cabinet and an African-American to head the Environmental Protection Agency. As you know, his vice-president is also a racial minority woman.
In a March 2021 speech in Pittsburgh, where he debuted his infrastructure plan, President Joe Biden spoke of a host of universal goals - spending on roads, "creating good-paying jobs" - and also emphasized the need to invest in "communities that have historically been overlooked." He emphasized, however, that he was referring to "blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans. Promoting his stimulus plan, Biden called "advancing racial justice" one of the five cornerstones, calling it "an investment in America." He also said that racism is holding back the entire country.
On Jan. 26, 2021, in his signing speech for the Racial Equality Act, President D. Biden said: "Those 8 minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd's life opened the eyes of millions of Americans and millions of people around the world. It was a knee on the neck of justice, and it will not be forgotten. It shook the minds of tens of millions of Americans and was, in my view, a turning point in this country's attitude toward racial justice." He also emphasized that "COVID-19 has further paved the path of destruction through every community in America. The effects of the disease have spared no one, but the devastation in communities of color has been nothing short of staggering. Just look at the numbers: 40 percent of frontline workers - nurses, first responders, grocery store workers - are Americans of color, and many of them are still living on the edge. Today, one in ten black Americans is out of work. Today, one in eleven Hispanics are out of work. One in seven families in America--about one in four black and one in five Latino families in America--report that they do not have enough to eat in the United States. Blacks and Hispanics die from COVID-19 at nearly three times the rate of white Americans. And it's not white Americans' fault, it's just a fact."
Biden added that to ensure equality, including equality in the labor market, "this nation and this government have to completely change their approach to the issue of racial equality. Yes, we need criminal justice reform, but that is far from enough. We need to open America's perspectives to every American. And that means we have to make the issue of racial justice not just a matter for any one government agency; it has to be a matter for the whole government."
"Today," he said, "I am directing federal agencies to combat the resurgence of xenophobia, particularly against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which has increased dramatically during this pandemic. This is unacceptable and un-American. I have asked the Justice Department to strengthen partnerships with the Asian American and Pacific Islander community to prevent these hate crimes."
