Biden promotes racial equity for Asian Americans in wake of Trump’s anti-China talk

President Biden delivers remarks on racial equity in the State Dining Room of the White House on Tuesday. President Biden took action Tuesday to disavow another aspect of his predecessor’s legacy — racial animus toward Asian Americans, hostility that rose sharply during a pandemic President Trump blamed on “the China virus.” Biden’s executive order, one of four addressing racial equity that he signed at the White House, called for providing the Justice Department with additional guidance and resources to more accurately track hate crimes and harassment of Asian Americans. In remarks from the White House, Biden referred to an increase in xenophobic attacks against Asian Americans and added: “This is unacceptable and it’s un-American.” The directive also spurred federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, to examine whether there are xenophobic references in policies, memoranda or public guidelines from the Trump administration and, if found, to remove them. Hate crimes and incidents directed at Asian Americans surged almost immediately following the coronavirus outbreak in the late winter of 2020, a trend the Biden administration official blamed on Trump’s “offensive and dangerous” rhetoric and the “particular xenophobic propaganda” targeting Asians that he articulated at daily briefings, informal news conferences and campaign rallies. The executive orders come six days after an inauguration address in which Biden vowed to unify a divided country, promising that “the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer” and decrying the threats of “a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism.” Republicans are already fighting back: Opponents of an order last week setting a 100-day moratorium on deportations, pending the new administration’s review, won a minor victory Tuesday when a federal judge granted Texas’ request for a temporary restraining order.