Biden says George Floyd's death 'marked a turning point in this nation's attitudes toward racial justice'

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

published 26 January 2021

President Biden signed four more executive orders on Tuesday, this round focusing on improving racial equity in the United States.

The actions, reports Bloomberg, include directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to "review and change policies from the Trump administration that undermined protections under the Fair Housing Act" and directing the attorney general not to renew contracts with private prisons. The other two are aimed at empowering self-determination for Native American tribes and stemming xenophobia against Asian Americans.

Biden explained that he was compelled to act following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed by police officers in Minneapolis last year. "What many Americans didn't see, or had simply refused to see, couldn't be ignored any longer," he said. "Those eight minutes and 46 seconds that took George Floyd's life opened the eyes of millions of Americans and millions of people all over the world." Read more at Bloomberg. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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