The rising racism and hate crimes in the United States and President Donald Trumps reluctance to condemn white supremacy underscore that the American people need to mobilize to eliminate bigotry and discrimination, an African American journalist in Detroit says.
"The United States was founded on racism [and] the forced removal and extermination of the indigenous Native American people, the enslavement of millions and upon millions of Africans," said Abayomi Azikiwe, editor at the Pan-African News Wire.
"This has to end. We cannot trust the federal government to bring it to an end and people themselves must rally and organize to defeat racism once and for all," Azikiwe said in a phone interview with Press TV on Wednesday.
"This rise of racism is coming from the White House, its coming from Wall Street, its coming from the higher echelons of society in the United States and impacting people all the way down in regards to their social status," he added.
"This is something that has to be addressed by the federal government inside the United States and in the absence of any effective action by the federal government, the people in the United States themselves must mobilize and organize; to stand against racism and defeat racism once and for all," Azikiwe said.
"There is definitely a sharp rise in hate crimes throughout the United States. These crimes are not just being committed in smaller towns or rural areas, the highest concentration of crime increase are in larger cities," he noted.
Hate crimes have spiked by almost 20 percent in major US cities so far in 2017, after increasing by 5 percent nationally last year, fueled by the election of President Donald Trump, according to a new study.
The number of hate crimes in 13 US cities with a population of over 250,000 rose to 827 incidents, up 19.9 percent from 690 reported during the same period last year, according to police data compiled by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino.
Trumps divisive anti-immigration policies have reinvigorated white nationalist groups across the US.
Trump was widely criticized for equivocating in his condemnation of the Charlottesville incident, placing the blame on the "many sides" rather than specifically criticizing the white supremacists who gathered for the rally and marched through the town at night carrying flaming torches and calling out slogans reminiscent of fascist displays in Nazi Germany.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/8794
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