Unlike several of his predecessors and to a decidedly greater degree, Donald Trump, the incumbent at the White House has been almost exceptionally prompt in castigating what they call “white supremacy” in the context of the recent killing of ten blacks by a white in Buffalo, near New York. Far from pussyfooting, President Joe Biden has been riveted to the menace per se.

It thus comes about that three days after the massacre last Saturday, Mr Biden was suitably forthright in his condemnation of what he calls the “poison of white supremacy” appealing to the nation to “reject the lie” of the racist “replacement theory”, one that was espoused by the assassin who murdered 10 blacks in Buffalo. “In America, evil will not win, I promise you. Hate will not prevail, white supremacy will not have the last word.”

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The US President spoke in the immediate aftermath of the deadliest racist attack in the United States of America since he assumed office. The fineprint of Mr Biden’s spirited presentation must be that the “replacement theory” is a decidedly racist ideology, which has moved from the white nationalist fringe to the mainstream.

The somewhat specious argument is that white people and their influence are being ”intentionally replaced” by people of colour. Not to put too fine a point on it, the very concept is hideously repugnant to humanity, almost as repugnant as the majoritarianism or the caste system in several parts of the world. “Now’s the time for people of all races, from every background, to speak up as a majority and American and reject white supremacy.” Mr Biden has delivered this message before; most notably in his inaugural address, where he referred to it as “domestic terrorism that we must confront”.

However, such beliefs remain an entrenched threat at a time when his administration is riveted to the inflation and Russia’s war in Ukraine, not to forget the pandemic. The White House said the President and the First Lady will “grieve with the community that lost lives in a senseless and horrific mass shooting”.

In point of fact, the poison of white supremacy almost invariably translates to a horrific end for blacks, the places of occurrence across the nation only lengthening the loop of man’s inhumanity to man.No less crucially, President Biden will have to effect a fundamental change and more basically the response of white policemen to perceived black offenders.

For far too long, the latter has been at the receiving end of police (aka) white persecution. But while racism has always existed in the country, and people of colour have always been targets, the incident at Buffalo, and others like it, suggest that the battle for the soul of America is entering a decisive stage.