Biden: “White Supremacy Is a Poison”

This piece was originally published in the May 18, 2022 edition of CAP Action’s newsletter, the Progress Report. Subscribe to the Progress Report here.

“White supremacy is a poison running through our body politic. We need to say as clearly and forcefully as we can that the ideology of white supremacy has no place in America. Failure to do so will be complicity. Silence will be complicity. We cannot remain silent.” – President Joe Biden

President Biden traveled to Buffalo, New York, on Tuesday in his all-too-familiar role as comforter-in-chief. He visited the site of last weekend’s horrific attack on Buffalo’s Black community, met with survivors of the shooting and families of those who were killed, and delivered stirring remarks condemning the rising tide of hate and white supremacy that inspired the attack.

According to the FBI, hate crimes are at the highest level in more than a decade, and in particular, crimes against Black Americans have surged. 

These attacks do not happen in a vacuum. In addition to America’s racist systems, the violent and hateful rhetoric that inspires acts like this has been mainstreamed by right-wing politicians and media figures, and they must be held accountable. The deadly consequences of their bigotry puts the safety of all marginalized Americans at risk. 

Share this graphic to stand with President Biden and everyone else united against white supremacy:

In the news

• Primary elections were held in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Kentucky, and Idaho on Tuesday night. The races in many cases showed that MAGA extremism is alive and well in the base of the Republican Party, particularly in Pennsylvania, where far-right election-denier and state Sen. Doug Mastriano won the Republican nomination for governor.

What we’re reading

• “The Fight for Abortion Rights Is a Battle Over History” by Kate Knibbs (Wired)
• “Senate must pass reforms to make medications affordable” by Meg Jackson-Drage (The Salt Lake Tribune)
• “Kinzinger criticizes GOP for pushing theories that are ‘getting people killed’ in wake of Buffalo shooting” by Veronica Stracqualursi (CNN)
• “Parents Shouldn’t Have to Spend Thousands of Dollars to Keep Their Diabetic Kids Alive” by Elise Oberdorfer-Douglas (Latino Rebels)
• “Are culture wars really a distraction?” by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò (The Guardian)
• “Climate lessons from faltering Texas power grid” by Daniel Cohan (The Hill)
• “The Buffalo gunman emerged from a far-right ecosystem that’s gone mainstream” by Colin P. Clarke (The Los Angeles Times)
• “Media coverage of Buffalo shooting reflects racial bias and double standards” by David A. Love (The Grio)

This piece was originally published in the May 18, 2022 edition of CAP Action’s newsletter, the Progress Report. Subscribe to the Progress Report here.