Barack Obama was inaugurated as the first African American president of the U.S on the 20th of January 2009, with his presidential reign lasting 8 years to the 20th of January to 2017, in which he strived for equality, especially due to previously working as a civil rights lawyer. Obama implemented the first American national health insurance program after years of previous presidents' failure, establishing that healthcare was a human right and consequently initiated ‘Obamacare’ within the Affordable Care Act in his first 2 years of presidency, which provided health insurance to millions of Americans who previously did not have access. Obama developed more initiatives to aid minority groups such as the fair housing act in which Obama worked to restore the law that prohibited housing discrimination based solely on race, religion, sex or disability, especially aiming to encourage minority groups to challenge deep ingrained patterns of segregation within communities. This law however was found to be violated by Donald Trump and his father's company (Trump Management) and was charged by the government/justice department due to the company's regular practice of discrimination in 1973. The case resulted in the company settling for ‘familiarizing’ themselves with the fair housing act and did not have to admit guilt. Obama also founded the ‘My Brothers Keeper’ initiative in order to help aid young members of minority groups in areas of life such as education and work whilst keeping them safe from crime, providing second chances they deserved. The MBK foundation tracked its progress in reports that demonstrated data such as gathering over $1 billion dollars of support over 3 years, partnering with the department of education to pair youths with mentors in 30 different communities as well as crime falling by 9% and arrests falling by 15% between 2014-2015, all showing its success. As of Obamas work and dedication, he received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" specifically his work to strengthen international bodies such as the United Nations.
Donald Trump was the 45th president of the U.S, after Obama, inaugurated on the 20th of January 2017 to 20th January 2021. Rather than following in the footsteps of the previous U.S president to make advances for minority groups, Trump instead made several attempts to reverse certain policies that had been formerly worked immensely hard towards. For example, within a matter of hours of being inaugurated, Trump had signed an executive order which ‘minimized the economic burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act", overall reversing Obamas work towards Americas health care system, as citizens right to healthcare was seen as a burden to Trump. The order additionally increases control over implementing health care laws, making access to healthcare even more difficult for those already struggling who would have benefitted from the affordable care act. Furthermore, 5 days into his presidency, Trump signed an order to ‘protect the nation’ from ‘foreign terrorists’, the order suspended the entry of immigrants from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia for 90 days, and stopped all refugees from entering the country for 120 days in order for the secretary of homeland security and secretary of state to review the refugee admission process, which they named a ‘travel restriction’ rather than a ban. In addition, Trump banned transgender people from serving in the U.S military which he announced on twitter, which ultimately came into effect the next year, affecting the thousands of transgender troops already serving.
His reasoning being that the military should not be ‘burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail’ similarly to his reasoning to reverse the affordable care act.
The #blacklivesmatter campaign is a movement that originated in 2013 in the United States in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting murder of Trayvon Martin and followed the other racially motivated murders of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and many more. The hashtag was formed by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi which soon after became a co-founded chapter-based global network that builds relationships with partners internationally to fight racism and systemic injustice. The movement is used as an acknowledgement that Black lives are valued, and the struggle for justice and liberation is ongoing, especially after its expediential growth in 2019 when the #Blacklivesmatter global network launched a comprehensive policy platform to advocate for the protection and liberation of black people. The campaign gained even more support in 2020, following George Floyds murder which initiated international protests and demonstrations to end systematic racism and police brutality/accountability. #BlackLivesMatter activists also seek to ‘defund’ the police department budgets and invest the funds into community social services such as mental-health programs and conflict resolution campaigns. The campaign works
towards other issues regarding racism such as activists working on advancing voter registration in black communities and the setting up of foodbanks and donation centres with clothing, masks and hand sanitizers during the peak of covid-19.
However, the founders of the campaign received backlash after gaining controversy after profiting massively off the campaign whilst not investing the money back into itself. Instead co-founder Patrisse Cullors was accused of stealing the charity funds donated to the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation and purchasing a luxury home worth $6 million dollars in California. Despite this, the large scale attention brought onto the campaign still continues to progress in advocating for justice and equality, using the hashtag to amplify their voices.