Biden White House on Nikole Hannah-Jones Rejecting UNC Job: ‘No Question that there Continues to be Systemic Racism in our Country’

Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki reacted to New York Times writer and “1619 Project” author Nikole Hannah-Jones rejecting the tenured position of the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the University of North Carolina (UNC), claiming there’s “no question that there continues to be systemic racism in our country.”

A transcript is as follows:

REPORTER: Question on Nikole Hannah-Jones, who passed up a position at UNC for a teaching role at Howard University. What does Biden make of the UNC process and their decision? Is this an example of the systemic racism that he’s promised to handle?

JEN PSAKI: I’ve not spoken to the president about the decision of the tenure of the institution in North Carolina. I will say the students are quite lucky to have her as a professor in their family. There’s no question that there continues to be systemic racism in our country — we see that in a range of sectors, including in some learning institutions. That’s why the president is continuing to make racial equity and addressing racial equity as a central priority and a crisis he would like to address as president.