US President Biden says US 'must change laws that enable discrimination'

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US President Joe Biden says American laws need to be changed in order to root out racial discrimination.

In a statement released on Sunday on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Biden said "systemic racism and white supremacy are ugly poisons that have long plagued the United States."

The US president emphasized that racism and xenophobia are also global problems, but called specifically for domestic reforms.

"We must change the laws that enable discrimination in our country, and we must change our hearts," Biden said, adding that his administration "will not shy away from engaging in the hard work to take on the damaging legacy of slavery and our treatment of Native Americans, or from doing the daily work of addressing systemic racism and violence against Black, Native, Latino, Asian American, and Pacific Islander, and other communities of color."

Biden recalled that on his first day in office, he signed a presidential order establishing a whole of government approach to equity and racial justice.