Every once in a while in the history of mankind comes a leader who does irreparable damage to a country’s social fabric; former US President Donald Trump falls in that category. The incumbent, Joe Biden, has been left to undo the damage that Trump’s divisive politics did to American society. In his forthright, no-nonsense manner, Biden has stepped right up to the plate to set matters right. In his first primetime address, giving details of the progress made in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden didn’t mince words in condemning “vicious hate crimes” committed against Asian-Americans since the start of the outbreak. Terming such acts “un-American”, he called for an immediate halt to these. The remarks come in the backdrop of China being accused globally of unleashing the virus upon the world, with Trump often referring to it as “the Chinese virus”. This unleashed a spate of attacks on Asian-Americans who were harassed and blamed for the outbreak. If a research conducted by the California State University is to be believed, anti-Asian hate crimes more than doubled from 49 to 122 in 2020 across 16 major US cities even as overall hate crimes fell. According to another study by the Stop AAPI Hate advocacy group, more than 2,800 incidents of racism and discrimination against Asian-Americans were reported online across the country between March-December 2020. Though Biden’s intentions are good, it remains to be seen whether he can heal the wounds inflicted by Trump’s divisive narrative, which targeted not only Asian-Americans but set the Blacks and Whites against each other, too. His reign saw protracted race riots and ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests across America.

Though Right-wing violence is a result of the Whites’ anxiety about Barack Obama’s presidency, it accelerated in the Trump era. This is because certain statements by Trump were perceived by White supremacists as the former President’s tacit support for their cause. For instance, after the violence in Charlottesville, Trump asserted that “both sides” were equally to blame and that there were “some very fine people” among the far-Right demonstrators. Ironically, many of those “very fine people” were wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ caps while chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans. Also, in the run-up to the November 6 mid-term polls, Trump rallied crowds with inflammatory rhetoric about Muslims and immigrants. So, with a country split nearly down the middle, Biden faces an uphill task of uniting hearts. In fact, even US citizens are doubtful if he can get the job done. While a CNN survey shows that 67 per cent Americans are confident of Biden’s ability to guide the US out of the pandemic and a majority of the people surveyed by Pew researchers said they trusted the new President to make sound decisions on foreign policy and economy, there is less faith (52 per cent Doubting Thomases) in his ability to unite the country. Whether their fears are misplaced or not, only time will tell.

Every once in a while in the history of mankind comes a leader who does irreparable damage to a country’s social fabric; former US President Donald Trump falls in that category. The incumbent, Joe Biden, has been left to undo the damage that Trump’s divisive politics did to American society. In his forthright, no-nonsense manner, Biden has stepped right up to the plate to set matters right. In his first primetime address, giving details of the progress made in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden didn’t mince words in condemning “vicious hate crimes” committed against Asian-Americans since the start of the outbreak. Terming such acts “un-American”, he called for an immediate halt to these. The remarks come in the backdrop of China being accused globally of unleashing the virus upon the world, with Trump often referring to it as “the Chinese virus”. This unleashed a spate of attacks on Asian-Americans who were harassed and blamed for the outbreak. If a research conducted by the California State University is to be believed, anti-Asian hate crimes more than doubled from 49 to 122 in 2020 across 16 major US cities even as overall hate crimes fell. According to another study by the Stop AAPI Hate advocacy group, more than 2,800 incidents of racism and discrimination against Asian-Americans were reported online across the country between March-December 2020. Though Biden’s intentions are good, it remains to be seen whether he can heal the wounds inflicted by Trump’s divisive narrative, which targeted not only Asian-Americans but set the Blacks and Whites against each other, too. His reign saw protracted race riots and ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests across America.

Though Right-wing violence is a result of the Whites’ anxiety about Barack Obama’s presidency, it accelerated in the Trump era. This is because certain statements by Trump were perceived by White supremacists as the former President’s tacit support for their cause. For instance, after the violence in Charlottesville, Trump asserted that “both sides” were equally to blame and that there were “some very fine people” among the far-Right demonstrators. Ironically, many of those “very fine people” were wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ caps while chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans. Also, in the run-up to the November 6 mid-term polls, Trump rallied crowds with inflammatory rhetoric about Muslims and immigrants. So, with a country split nearly down the middle, Biden faces an uphill task of uniting hearts. In fact, even US citizens are doubtful if he can get the job done. While a CNN survey shows that 67 per cent Americans are confident of Biden’s ability to guide the US out of the pandemic and a majority of the people surveyed by Pew researchers said they trusted the new President to make sound decisions on foreign policy and economy, there is less faith (52 per cent Doubting Thomases) in his ability to unite the country. Whether their fears are misplaced or not, only time will tell.