The Donald Trump "circus" has overshadowed the Black Lives Matter movement and set race relations back in the US, according to an influential young American author.

Brit Bennett, 26, shot to prominence in 2014 after her essay in the aftermath of the Ferguson riots, I Don't Know What to Do With Good White People, went viral.

She has since written essays for The New York Times, The New Yorker and The Paris Review, has released a debut fiction novel (which is being made into a film) and is now touring Australia to talk about her work.

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"For a long time I felt like we were very focused on Black Lives Matter [and] police brutality," Bennett told News Breakfast.

"In a lot of ways that conversation receded because of the Trump circus that's constantly happening.

"I think he's set race relations back. He's given voice to and validated a lot of really harmful ideas about race."

Mr Trump has promised to confront racism and unite a "divided country", but Bennett said she hadn't seen evidence of this.

"I think unfortunately we're moving in the wrong direction from the point at which I wrote that essay," she said.

Bennett's essay was a product of her frustration with non-indictments of white police officers who killed black men.

It was both personal — telling stories of her parents' experience with institutional racism — and pointed in challenging well-intentioned white people to consider racism could be subtle and not just something that was overt and deliberate.

"People always say, 'So-and-so doesn't have a racist bone in their body' as if it is just this overt decision all the time," Bennett said.

"But the fact is we are all born into these systems of inequality and all internalise this stuff all the time."

Using comedy as a 'vehicle to protest'

Bennet is one of many younger, non-white Americans who are adding their voice to the conversation, and using a mixture of opinion and creative writing to tap into the themes.

The recent Netflix series Dear White People also focuses on interactions between young white and black Americans, while the comedy series Master Of None often looks at casual racism in social settings.

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"One silver lining of Donald Trump has been comedy, because comedy is often the vehicle for people who are disempowered," Bennett said.

"There has been something that's been really exciting about that and thinking of the things they've done on Saturday Night Live, which have actually really gotten under Donald Trump's skin.

"So the idea of comedy or satire being a vehicle to protest, I think that is something that is powerful and cool to see."