GIVEN AMERICA'S PAST AND PRESENT, BIDEN'S CALL FOR UNITY WAS TIMELY

America is known as the world’s first democracy and as a country where different ethnicities coalesce to constitute the quintessential “American”. But closer scrutiny would reveal that, from the beginning to the present day, its history has been pockmarked by disunity, violence, racial discrimination, economic inequality, and even secessionist tendencies.

- P.K. Balachandran

What happened on January 6, when White racist hoodlums, exhorted by the then President Donald Trump, stormed into Capitol Hill with some even intending to kill the Vice President and the House Speaker, was only the latest incident of intolerance and lawlessness in US history.

It is in this context that President Joe Biden spoke on Wednesday extensively, emphatically and movingly, about the dire need for unity, tolerance, and respect across ethnicities among Americans.

“I know, speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy. I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial. Victory is never assured,” the 78-year-old Biden said in his inaugural address.

WHITE RIGHT WING EXTREMISM