Biden Seeks to Define His Presidency by an Early Emphasis on Equity
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Biden Seeks to Define His Presidency by an Early Emphasis on Equity Only two presidents before him have used their first weeks in office to push for equality with the same force, according to one historian. President Biden made a pledge to defeat “white supremacy” during his Inaugural Address.Credit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times WASHINGTON — In his first days in office, President Biden has devoted more attention to issues of racial equity than any new president since Lyndon B. Johnson, a focus that has cheered civil rights activists and drawn early criticism from conservatives. In his inauguration speech, the president pledged to defeat “white supremacy,” using a burst of executive orders on Day 1 to declare that “advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our government.” He has ordered his coronavirus response team to ensure that vaccines are distributed equitably. His $1.9 trillion recovery plan targets underserved communities by calling for paid leave for women forced out of jobs, unemployment benefits that largely help Black and brown workers, and expanded tax credits for impoverished Americans who are disproportionately nonwhite. And the new administration is preparing to take sweeping steps in the months ahead to directly address inequity in housing, criminal justice, voting rights, health care, education and economic mobility. Biden issues executive orders promoting racial equity President Joe Biden on Tuesday rolled out an additional slate of executive actions to address racial equity, a move to fulfill a key campaign promise that he made during the height of this past summer’s protests. Biden said that Tuesday's actions are a direct response to the groundswell of protests that emerged following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minnesota police and the resulting calls for racial justice. In brief remarks at the White House, the president said Floyd's death "opened the eyes of millions" and paved the way for change. "What many Americans didn't see or had simply refused to see couldn't be ignored any longer," Biden said. As part of the effort, the president directed the Department of Justice to not renew contracts with private prison operators and signed a presidential memorandum acknowledging the role the federal government has played in discriminatory housing policy. "President Biden is committed to reducing mass incarceration while making our communities safer," Susan Rice, who heads the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters earlier on Tuesday. "That starts with ending the federal government's reliance on private prisons." However, that order will not apply to other federal agencies who may contract with those same operators, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Biden is also instructing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reassess moves implemented under former President Donald Trump, including making it harder for plaintiffs to meet the legal threshold for proving unintentional discrimination, known as the disparate impact rule. The definition adopted under Trump and former HUD Secretary Ben Carson would also grant defendants more latitude to rebut those claims, but a federal court has put the rule on hold pending an ongoing legal challenge. "For too long, we have allowed a narrow, cramped view of the promise of this nation to fester," he said. "We bought the view that America is a zero-sum game in many cases." Biden also signed an executive order reaffirming the federal government’s commitment to the sovereignty of tribal governments over their territory, and a memorandum related to the rise in anti-Asian sentiment during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Trump administration was accused of racism and xenophobia, particularly for the former president’s penchant for calling the coronavirus the “China virus” in an effort to blame the pandemic on the Chinese ruling government. "Advancing equity is a critical part of healing and of restoring unity in our nation," Rice said. The Biden administration says the newest actions are an extension of other moves the president has made in the week since he took office to address racial equity, including for Black and Latino communities that have been among the hardest-hit by the effects of the ongoing pandemic, as well as the economic ramifications of the restrictions put in place in order to combat the virus. "Building a more equitable economy is essential if Americans are going to compete and thrive in the 21st Century," Rice said. Biden has previously moved to extend the moratoriums on federal evictions and foreclosures through at least the end of March, as well as to continue the Department of Education’s freeze of monthly student loan payments into autumn. Both initiatives were started under Trump in the early stages of the pandemic. Biden has also disbanded Trump’s 1776 Commission, which was set up last year to promote “patriotic education” and to serve as an ideological counter to the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, though a report issued by the 1776 Commission this month faced considerable criticism for its level of scholarly rigor and for appearing to draw heavily from one of its author’s previous work. Biden bashed the 1776 Commission as "counterfactual" and counterproductive. "Unity and healing must begin with understanding and truth, not ignorance and lies," he said. he Biden administration’s early plans for racial equity, explained The president will end contracts with private prisons and promote fair housing policies. Protesters in Brooklyn, New York, on September 5, 2020.Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images Before taking office, President Joe Biden promised that racial justice would be one of the four “compounding crises” he’d tackle in his first days on the job. And on day one, he dissolved the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, an education advisory committee convened to downplay the role of slavery in American history, among other revisionist efforts. He also announced a plan to examine how federal agencies promote and foster inequality along racial lines. Now, on day seven, Biden took four more executive actions designed to bolster fairness and justice: He denounced racism and xenophobia directed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, he directed the Department of Housing and Urban Development to combat housing discrimination, he vowed to strengthen the federal government’s respect for tribal sovereignty, and instructed the DOJ to not renew contracts with private prisons. Biden’s equity platform states that while equal opportunity is America’s foundation, systemic racism — laws, policies, and institutions — prevents many Americans from reaching this ideal. This very fact is illustrated by the coronavirus pandemic, which has decimated Black and Indigenous communities by taking their lives at a disproportionate rate and leaving many in those communities unemployed or at greater risk of infection due to their positions as essential workers. According to the first order he signed on January 20, Biden wants to pursue a “comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality.” Biden’s early attention to equity comes at a time when social justice advocates are calling on elected officials to directly address systemic racism as it manifests in policing, education, health, housing, the environment, and the economy through policy. In 2020, millions of Americans protested the police killings of Black Americans like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. While Biden’s executive order suggests that equity is top of mind, activists say they’re aware that they’ll need to put pressure on the administration to set the agenda and bring continued urgency. “While these are a good first step, no set of executive orders alone is going to revoke structural oppression,” Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party and an organizer with the Movement for Black Lives and the Frontline, told Vox. “Historically, whenever this country made major gains around racial justice and equity, it was because social movements led the government. Significant movement around racial justice and equity has never come from the White House, but we are encouraged they’re paying attention. Our social movements still have a critical role to play in all of this.” Biden’s orders address discrimination in housing and against Asian Americans On January 26, the Biden administration announced he will sign four executive orders to advance racial equity. These include: • “Redressing Our Nation’s and the Federal Government’s History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies” acknowledges the federal government’s role in discriminatory practices like redlining and directs HUD to fully implement the Fair Housing Act, which requires the government to fight housing discrimination. • An order to reform the country’s incarceration system by ending the use of private prisons, an action in line with what Biden proposed during his campaign for president. According to the administration, “private prisons profiteer off of federal prisoners in less safe conditions for prisoners and correctional officers alike.” The order instructs the Department of Justice to not renew any contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities. • A memo that repudiates racism and xenophobia toward Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, particularly amid the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, Asian Americans have been the victims of racist attacks and have been scapegoated and stereotyped as the people who created and spread the coronavirus. Trump helped spur these reactions by using racist language to describe the virus. Biden’s memo directs the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance around cultural competency in the government’s coronavirus response. Biden’s memo also encourages the Department of Justice to partner with AAPI to work to prevent discrimination and hate crimes.