(AP) — WILMINGTON, Del. President Joe Biden will convene a White House meeting next month to tackle a wave of hate-fueled violence in the United States, as part of his campaign promise to repair the spirit of the nation.
The White House announced on Friday that Vice President Joe Biden would attend the United We Stand Summit on September 15, stressing the corrosive effects of violence on public safety and democracy. After ten Black people were massacred at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in May, advocates encouraged Biden to organize the event, which also aimed to address a string of hate-driven killings in towns like as El Paso, Texas, Pittsburgh, and Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
As President Biden remarked in Buffalo following the tragic mass massacre earlier this year, ‘we must all join in this great cause of America,’ press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. The United We Stand Summit will provide a vital opportunity for Americans of all colors, faiths, regions, political affiliations, and walks of life to unite in support of that cause.
The summit will feature civil rights organizations, church leaders, corporate executives, law enforcement, gun violence prevention advocates, former members of violent hate groups, victims of extremist violence, and cultural luminaries, according to the White House. The White House has stated that it plans to bring together Democrats and Republicans, as well as federal, state, and local government leaders, to fight hate-motivated violence.
Biden, a Democrat, has repeatedly credited the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, white nationalist riot with pushing him out of political retirement to oppose then-President Donald Trump in 2020. During that campaign, he vowed to endeavor to bridge political and social differences and foster national unity, but achieving that goal remains a work in progress.
Sindy Benavides, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the summit came about after the Buffalo massacre, when her organization, along with the Anti-Defamation League, the National Action Network, and others, wanted to press the Biden administration to address extremist threats more directly.
As civil rights and social justice groups, we fight against this every day, and we wanted to make it clear that the government must take the lead in combating right-wing extremism, she added.
As civil rights and social justice groups, we fight against this every day, and we wanted to make sure to emphasize that the government needs to take the lead in combating right-wing extremism, she added.
Benavides said Biden’s hosting of the conference would help energize the country to face the issue of hate-inspired violence, but she also hoped for long-term solutions to emerge.
What’s crucial to us is tackling mental health, gun control reform, misinformation, deception, and malinformation, she explained. We want policymakers to focus on common sense solutions so that this sort of violence does not occur in our communities. And we want to see measures that decrease violence put in place.
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