Biden warns of echoes of Tulsa race massacre

TULSA, Oklahoma/LEXINGTON, Virginia－Joe Biden on Tuesday became the first sitting president of the United States to visit the site in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where hundreds of black people were massacred by a white mob in 1921, and he said the legacy of racist violence and white supremacy still resonates.

Biden's commemoration of the massacre came amid the current national reckoning on racial justice, despite the massacre being largely under the radar in US classrooms and history books for years.

Biden said the deadly Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol and efforts by a number of states to restrict voting were echoes of the same problem.

"What happened in Greenwood was an act of hate and domestic terrorism, with a through-line that exists today," Biden said.

White residents in Tulsa shot and killed up to 300 black people on May 31 and June 1, 1921, and burned and looted homes and businesses, devastating a prosperous African-American community after a white woman accused a black man of assault, an allegation that was never proven.

Biden did not answer a reporter's question about whether there should be an official US presidential apology for the killings.

The visit came after last year's murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer, sparked nationwide protests.

Separately, a Virginia state-authorized report released on Tuesday said the Virginia Military Institute has tolerated and failed to address institutional racism and sexism and must be held accountable for making changes.

The 145-page report found "racial slurs and jokes are not uncommon "and "contribute to an atmosphere of hostility toward minorities".

Some graduates welcomed the findings as long-overdue at an institution that carries the prestige of helping to educate General George Patton but is also tied to the nation's history of racism and sexism.

The report found racial disparity exists among cadets who have been dismissed by the school's student-run honor court. Cadets of color represent 23 percent of the corps but make up 41 percent of those dismissed since 2011.

The report also said sexual assault is prevalent yet inadequately addressed at the nation's oldest state-supported military college. A survey found 14 percent of female cadets reported being sexually assaulted, while 63 percent said a fellow cadet had told them he or she was a victim of sexual assault.

The institute was founded in 1839 in Lexington. The school also educated George Marshall. It did not accept African Americans until 1968 or accept women until after a 1996 US Supreme Court ruling.

Agencies via Xinhua