The United States is not a racist country but still has to heal wounds from its enslavement of blacks and subsequent Jim Crow laws, President Joe Biden says.
The country still has work to do on race relations due to an “overhang” of both eras, the president told NBC News in an interview that aired Friday.
He was asked about a remark made Wednesday night by GOP Sen. Tim Scott, a black South Carolinian, as he delivered his party’s rebuttal to Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress.
“I get called Uncle Tom and the N-word by progressives,” Scott said. “I know firsthand, our healing is not finished. … Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.”
Biden was criticized recently by Republicans for, prior to the jury reaching a verdict, voicing support for a guilty decision in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, a black man who had been detained by police.
After the jury found Chauvin guilty on all three counts, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated their concerns about the treatment of black people by police.
“Such a verdict is also much too rare,” the president said last week.
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Drawing scorn from some Republicans, Biden also said systemic racism exists in the U.S., calling it “a stain on our nation’s soul.”
