President Joe Biden took aim on Sunday at the “ugly poisons” of “systemic racism and white supremacy” that he said had long plagued the United States, and vowed to change the laws that enabled continued discrimination.
In blunt language, the Democratic president said the country faced problems with racism, xenophobia and nativism.
Biden’s statement followed similar sentiments from Vice President Kamala Harris, who detailed in Atlanta on Friday the U.S history of discrimination against Asian Americans.
“Racism is real in America and it has always been,” said Harris, the country’s first Asian-American, first Black and first female vice president. “Xenophobia is real in America and always has been. Sexism too.” she said.
Biden’ statement, issued on Sunday night, marks the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, created in the 1970s to mark a 1960 massacre in South Africa.
“Hate can have no safe harbor in America. It should have no safe harbor anywhere in the world. We must join together to make it stop,” Biden said in the statement.
