Among the references cited by the president, it is surprising not to find any black author. America is currently living through a period of strong African-American mobilizations, and intellectual circles take a particular interest in the thought developed by non-white authors. One might think that it would be natural for a president – who entered politics in particular because he wanted to advance the cause of civil rights and who keeps strong links with the black electorate – to be attentive to the ideas coming from this community. . Yet this does not appear to be the case.
In the speech he gave on 1er June to commemorate the Tulsa (Oaklahoma) massacre, where about 300 blacks were killed by whites a hundred years ago, the president simply quotes the first epistle to the Corinthians by Saint Paul. Saladin Ambar, professor of political science at Rutgers University (New Jersey), who studies American politics from an ethno-racial point of view, is not surprised by this absence. “Few presidents have a real connection with the intellectual world, let alone with the black intellectual world. Bill Clinton had read WEB Du Bois and Toni Morrison. Barack Obama had truly studied African-American thought, but they are an exception. “
Biden, however, made a gesture, and not the least, towards the black intellectual community. The White House wanted the Department of Education to provide special funds to strengthen schools teaching discriminatory policies in the United States. When issuing the directive in April, the Biden administration cited historian and anti-racist activist Ibram X. Kendi and the project 1619 of New York Times, which places slavery at the center of the national narrative.
This decision is all the more significant since Kendi and the 1619 project are the subject of heated debate and, more generally, the way in which the school approaches the question of racism gives rise to intense debates in the United States. Biden had hitherto kept a distance from historical quarrels. His vision of the national novel tries to find the balance between the dark side of the country and the promise of freedom enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.