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George Floyd protests: Jimmy Carter pained by 'tragic racial injustices', says 'violence is not the solution'

The 95-year-old released a statement along with his wife Rosalynn to say they are pained by racial injustices and the backlash
PUBLISHED JUN 4, 2020
Jimmy Carter (Getty Images)
Jimmy Carter (Getty Images)

As the US continues to witness protests over the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis on May 25, yet another former president has broken silence. After George W Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the remaining living former president Jimmy Carter also expressed concern and in a statement on Wednesday, June 3, addressing Floyd’s brutal death, said: “We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this”. He, however, did not mention Floyd’s name.

The 95-year-old Carter, the US’s oldest living president, said he and his wife Rosalynn were “pained by the tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation in recent weeks”. The one-time president (1977-81), who was in office during the Iran hostage crisis, backed the peaceful protesters and condemned the violence that has broken out across the nation. The statement was released by both Carter and Rosalynn.

“Our hearts are with the victims’ families and all who feel hopeless in the face of pervasive racial discrimination and outright cruelty. We all must shine a spotlight on the immorality of racial discrimination. But violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution,” the veteran said in a statement. In the statement, Carter spoke about his own experience of growing up in an environment of segregation in the South and appealed to the rulers of the day to strive for equality. 

“As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans. As a politician, I felt a responsibility to bring equity to my state and our country. In my 1971 inaugural address as Georgia’s governor, I said: “The time for racial discrimination is over”,” the Democratic politician-philanthropist said. 

Jimmy Carter in the 1970s (Getty Images)

“With great sorrow and disappointment, I repeat those words today, nearly five decades later,” he added. Carter praised the public protest against racial justice, saying: “We have seen that silence can be as deadly as violence.”

“People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say "no more" to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy,” the 39th president said.

“We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.”

Carter was known to be the predecessor with who Trump shared a good relation but in June last year, the former suggested the latter to be an illegitimate president who stormed the White House with Russia's aid

Former presidents speak on US protests

On Tuesday, June 2, Bush released a statement on the protests, saying it is “time for America to examine our tragic failures”. Last Saturday, May 30, Clinton said that Americans “need to see each other as equally deserving of life, liberty, respect, dignity, and the presumption of innocence," and asked people to ask themselves a set of "hard questions.”

Obama also spoke out last week saying events like deaths of Floyd “shouldn’t be ‘normal’ in 2020 America”. On Wednesday, June 3, he personally thanked the protesters across the nation and asked young Americans to “feel hopeful even as you may feel angry” because he thinks change is coming. Obama also penned a piece in which he condemned police brutality against black people.

“Let's not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves,” he wrote.

Trump has come under questioning for his dubious role in the times of the riots. He has made a series of remarks through tweets targeting the protesters that were seen to be fuelling the situation.

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