Barack Obama was President of the United States from January 2009 through to January 2017, when he was then replaced by Donald Trump. From Illinois, he is a Democrat who won over Republican John McCain in the 2008 election for president. Barack Obama is the first African American to have held the office, and this made huge strides towards equality. Before entering politics, he had worked as a civil rights lawyer and an Illinois state senator. He was the 44th President of the United States, and as well as being the first black president, he was also the first black president of the Harvard Law Review.
From his first day in office Obama worked to secure the affluence and welfare of fellow African Americans by increasing access to health care, establishing career paths and jobs, and strengthening the school system. He has a positive track record in terms of trying to help black Americans, sweeping in as a politician with a vision. His approaches to equality did not go unnoticed, when in 2009 he won the Nobel Peace Prize due to ‘extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.’
Obama, as well as helping African Americans, also showed his support for the LGBTQ community when he struck down the Supreme Courts attempt to overrule not legalising gay marriage. This resulted in the US legalising gay marriage in 37 states in 2015. Obama hailed this as a ‘victory for America’ after the Supreme Court was overruled in the Obergefell v. Hodges case.
Obama passed the health-care reform which went a long way in enhancing Americans health insurance to ensure their health would be the standard. He also put an end to the requirement of gay people having to confirm their sexuality when entering the military, and overall was a large supporter of the LGBT community. He pushed Congress despite their reluctancy for an immigration reform and attempted to protect and shelter residents who had been in the country long-time from being deported, especially those who were in youth groups. However, he was impeded by an order of the court and was deadlocked which the Supreme Court then refused to reverse. Despite this, Obama only prioritised migrating those who were dangerous criminals and took a ‘war on drugs.’ He also made other strides such as putting an immediate stop to CIA torture methods.
However, despite Obamas attempts, he did not live up to what he wanted to do exactly. He could not achieve all the things he wanted to do, and still proved a bias when it came to certain things, all in contrast to his Nobel Peace Prize. He migrated those with old minor convictions, and detained ++entire families of asylum seekers in the United States. He also was responsible for mass arrests in his attempt to stop drugs, having a major effect on the African American community. He did not provide any support for the Saudi conflict, and his actions on counterterrorism were half hearted. He also reversed the plans he had of trying the accused 9/11 plotters.
Donald Trump was the 45th President of the United States, in office from January 2017 to January 2021. He has been a candidate for presidency three times, and this was his only success. He was the first person to become president without government or military experience, and as a far right Republican, Americans feared what his approach to ruling the country would be like. He won the election against Hillary Clinton in 2016, and quickly made a loyal base for himself with the radicalised Republican Party.
Trump was already known to have a problematic background – his racist remarks and several sexual assault allegations – and yet still won the election. He has radicalised black and white views on things and during his presidency attempted to reverse certain policies. Any strides that Obama had taken towards equality and representation during his time in office were now against Trump and his attempt to take them back.
On January 27th, only a week into his presidency, Trump signed for a Muslim ban that discriminated against Muslims and banned refugees. He also signed three executive orders to ‘fight crime, gangs and drugs.’ Despite its vagueness, this policy was viewed suspiciously by civil right organisations. He also ended the collection of data on LGBTQ members with disabilities, withdrew a survey to address LGBTQ youth homelessness, and restricted travel to the US for citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. All of this was in less than two months of him becoming president, and there were hundreds of more policies he would sign on.
During his nomination for presidency, Trump continuously promised to ‘build a wall’ between the border of the US and Mexico. In his Inaugural Address, Trump announced the United States’ approach to foreign policy and trade saying he would ‘unite the civilised world against radical Islamic terrorism. ’He then withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and began striking Syria. In retaliation of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons against civilians in an attack, Trump authorised a limited cruise missile.
Donald Trump’s presidency was largely defined by how he disregarded the political norms, but also his two historical impeachments – his abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He is the first president to have been impeached twice, though he was not convicted and despite this being in 2019 he remained president until the re-election in 2021.
Within his first week of presidency, Joe Biden, the current president of the United States, began to make movements to reverse the damage Trump had done to the country. He signed 15 executive orders, reversing Donald Trumps key policies, on his first day in office. He then began to work on the crisis that he had been left with after the corona virus, struggles with climate change (which Donald Trump claimed to not believe in), and racial equity issues. His first executive order was for Americans to wear face masks over the next 100 days when entering a federal building or on public transport. He also reversed Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organisation.
In 2013, three female organisers (Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi) created a black-centred movement called Black Lives Matter. It began with a social media hashtag ‘#BlackLivesMatter’ after George Zimmerman was acquitted in shooting and killing Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old boy, in 2012. The movement began to grow nationally throughout the United States in 2014 after the death of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
The movement was recognised largely when on the 25th of May 2020, George Floyd was lynched by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. The former officer pinned George to the ground using his knee and ignored his cries that he could not breathe, and the people standing around telling him to stop. George Floyd as a result suffocated and died under his knee.
The Black Lives Matter movement spread nationwide and now internationally, with people protesting police brutality and the systematic oppression against black people. The Black Lives Matter movement builds local power for people to intervene with violence against black people, and to eradicate white supremacy.
The movement is expansive and helps to affirm the lives of all black people – queer, trans, disabled undocumented, on record, women, and all those on the gender spectrum. It is an inclusive movement to bring everyone together and work towards equality. They attempt to bring out the humanity in others in showing that we can live in a world where black people are no longer systematically targeted for oppression. Those who now work in the Black Lives Matter corporation are a collection of liberators who work towards a movement at is inclusive and spacious. They want to win over those who promote racism and violence and show the world that there is no room for hatred, especially to those who are only trying to be accepted for something that comes as no fault of their own. They are trying to show that black people are people too, and they want this narrow nationalism to be prevalent in all communities. They want to ensure a movement that brings us all to the front and so we are all equal.