Joe Biden is expected in Buffalo today following the shooting that killed 10 people on Saturday. A supremacist terrorist attack that reignited the debate on gun control, but also that on hate speech. On the spot in Buffalo, the authorities expect the president to provide solutions and he is aware of the limits of his power of action.
For Joe Biden, it is ” to share the pain of a community bereaved by a racist crime », Reports our correspondent in New York, Loubna Anaki. But beyond the emotion, Joe Biden knows that this move is highly political, at a time when he is already under pressure, in particular due to inflation, the question of abortion and minority rights.
The Promise to Bring Americans Together
While campaigning on the promise to bring Americans together, Joe Biden finds himself once again facing a country plagued by racial hatred and gun violence. And little room to change things, given the slim majority of Democrats in Congress.
Joe Biden could use this trip to denounce certain Republicans and certain hosts of Fox News, accused since this shooting of having promoted far-right ideas, in particular the favored theory of the supremacists, that of the “great replacement”which has targeted black people and minorities.
A ” stain on the american soul »
” Joe Biden spoke of a “stain on the American soul”, notes the historian François Durpaire, joined by Achim Lippold. Obviously, it is the history of the country that is at stake. But what must be said is that behind the racism of the Buffalo killer, there is also a systemic racism of American society. Let me explain: the neighborhood where the Buffalo killer raged is called “East Side” in Buffalo. It’s an African-American neighborhood. It’s totally anachronistic, in 2022, to be able to talk about an African-American neighborhood. This means that America is not yet out of segregation. She may have come out of segregation in law, but she is not out in fact. And that is the big problem. There, we have an East Side district which is cut by a highway which is used by the richer populations and the white populations in particular, to reach downtown Buffalo. But it’s a highway that destroys the economic development of this poor neighborhood of Buffalo. »