Following executive orders that new US President Joe Biden signed to reverse the legacy of his predecessor Donald Trump, the Democrat announced on Tuesday (26) a package of measures to address the racial divide in the country, an election pledge from you.
The decisions attack four fronts: reducing the use of private prisons, strengthening the enforcement of anti-discrimination measures in the real estate market, underscoring a commitment to Native American tribal sovereignty, and condemning discrimination against native Americans. Asian and American descendants of the islanders. Peaceful.
“We are never fully up to the founding principles of this nation – to say the obvious – that all people are created equal and have the right to be treated equally throughout their lives,” said the president in the White House. “And now is the time to act, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because if we do it we’ll all be better off.”
One of the decisions is that the Ministry of Justice does not renew the contracts with the managers of private prisons, in order to end the use of this type of establishment by the portfolio.
Biden said the move was the first step in “preventing companies from taking advantage” of inmates and said it was “just the start of their leadership’s plan to address systemic problems in our criminal justice system.” .
The text, however, does not include private prison contracts with the Department of Homeland Security – which uses these facilities to detain undocumented migrants.
Another decree aimed at a more equitable housing policy, according to Biden’s management, which will require the Department of Housing and Urban Development to study and take action to mitigate the racially discriminatory effects of previous policies.
“Housing is a right in the United States and owning a home is an essential tool for generating wealth and passing it down from generation to generation,” said the president.
Regarding anti-Asian biases, Biden said discrimination against such people has increased during the pandemic, passing an executive order that condemns this type of intolerance less than a week after Trump left, who blamed the Chinese for the pandemic and called the coronavirus a “Chinese virus”.
The negative perception of China among Americans even increased in 2020, reaching the highest level in 15 years. A Pew Institute survey released at the end of July last year showed that about three-quarters of Americans held an unfavorable view of Eastern Europe.
The orders signed by Biden, however, still do not fully address the main demands of anti-racist and anti-police violence activists who took to the streets after the death of George Floyd, a black man suffocated by a white police officer in May 2020. .
Reform of the police and the criminal justice system, for example, is among the main demands of most of these groups. They also include the prohibition of the death penalty and the reduction in the transfer of military equipment to local security agents.
A senior Democratic administration official said, according to US newspaper The Washington Post, that the move was part of a larger effort to emphasize fairness in everything government does and that more actions – both executive decrees and efforts to pass laws in Congress – would be presented.
In signing the executive orders, Biden said in the coming weeks he would reaffirm “a commitment to diversity, equality, inclusion and accessibility.”
“Again, I don’t promise we can end this [desigualdades] tomorrow, but I promise you that we will continue to make progress towards eliminating systemic racism and that the entire White House and the federal government will be a part of it. “
The Democrat also called for the restoration and expansion of the franchise law, even as many states are seeking Republican supportive measures which Democrats say is aimed at removing the right to vote. Biden said there was a “battle for the soul of this nation”.
“And the simple truth is that our souls will be deranged as long as the systemic racism is allowed to persist. We cannot eliminate it. It will not be overnight. We cannot eliminate everything, but it is corrosive. , it’s destructive and it’s expensive .. “
Racial tensions became more evident in the last year of the Trump administration, and Biden noted that the Jan.6 invasion of Capitol Hill by Trump supporters was led by “bandits, insurgents, extremists. politicians and white supremacists “. But the Democrat said he believes most Americans believe in equality.