Joe Biden calls for an end to systemic racism on the occasion of the centennial of the Tulsa massacre

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, expressed this Monday his commitment to end the “roots of systemic racism” in the country, on the occasion of the centenary of the massacre in Tulsa (Oklahoma), where a mob of whites killed of at least 300 blacks.

To commemorate this date, the president published a presidential proclamation in which he urged Americans to “reflect on the deep roots of racial terror” and commit to “the elimination of systemic racism.”

Between May 31 and June 1, 1921, the greatest racist massacre in recent US history took place, when a white mob burned down and completely looted Greenwood, one of the wealthiest African-American neighborhoods in the country at the time.

More than 1,200 homes were razed, looted and burned with the connivance of local authorities in a tragedy in which the exact number of deaths is unknown to this day because no one wanted to investigate, although historians now place the death toll at at least 300. .

Biden recalled in the text that families and minors were murdered in cold blood and that some 10,000 people were left homeless. Added to this was the fact that “in the years following the destruction caused by the mob, laws and policies followed that made recovery impossible,” the president said.

Biden referenced local ordinances and measures taken by the federal government that prevented black neighbors from borrowing to rebuild, or the construction of a highway that divided this community. Consequently, “the attack on black families and black wealth in Greenwood persisted for generations,” he stressed.

For this reason, Biden considered that the US government must take charge and recognize the role it played in the past to take away wealth and opportunities from black communities.. In this sense, he expressed his Administration's commitment to accept this role of the authorities and to address racial inequalities with “historic investments” in the economic security of families and programs with funds for small businesses in disadvantaged areas, among others.

Biden will travel to Tulsa tomorrow to commemorate this centennial, where he will meet with some of the survivors of this massacre and plans to deliver a speech. He will be the first president in office to come to the city on this special date, and he does so after the wave of protests for racial justice that the US has experienced in the last year, triggered by the death of the African-American George Floyd after being suffocated. by white police officer in Minneapolis (Minnesota).