I am astonished that Attorney General Eric Holder doesn't — or won't — see how much things have changed in America. After all, much has happened in his lifetime. Yet, he proclaims that America "does not differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago."
Sounds like a cue for one of Seth Meyers' "Really!?!" segments on "Saturday Night Live."
Holder was a child during the 1950s, when the participants in the civil rights movement were protesting the segregation of public schools, public transportation and public facilities, when progressive-minded Americans of all races were taking part in lunch counter "sit-ins" and the "Freedom Rides."He celebrated his 10th birthday the day after John F. Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic president, and he holds his current position because he was nominated by the nation's first black president — who was elected in a campaign that was as free of the influence of racial prejudice as I could have imagined even a short time ago.
I have no doubt that some people (both black and white) cast their votes last November strictly on the basis of race. But I believe they were a distinct minority. Most people decided how to vote based on the issues that were discussed and the ideas that were expressed.
When Holder was a child — even when he was a teenager — a Barack Obama could not even vote in many places in the United States, much less dream of being nominated for president. How can Holder not see a difference between 1959 and 2009?
Today, at a time when millions of Americans of all colors are suffering in a cruel recession that often seems to have no end, Holder expresses displeasure because of "social segregation." He conveniently overlooks the fact that blacks and whites work together in harmony, sit next to each other in movie theaters and restaurants, stand in the same lines to vote and apply for unemployment benefits.
And Holder can't see how much things have changed? I can. I grew up in the South. When I enrolled in first grade in 1966 (Holder would have been 15 by that time), it was the first year that the public schools in my hometown were integrated — yet, as I recall, integration was achieved peacefully.
I can remember, as a small child, going to movies when the theater in my hometown was still segregated and blacks were ushered in to a designated section of the balcony through a rear entrance. I don't recall when that changed, but that, too, was accomplished without much fanfare, as was the desegregation of just about every other public building and privately owned business in town.
It's been many years since I lived in my hometown, so I don't know if any blacks have sought political office there — or if any have been elected. But if it hasn't happened, it will. And any blacks who decide to seek office there would be wise to follow Obama's all-inclusive example.
The very thing that set Obama apart from other blacks who sought major party presidential nominations in the past — the Jesse Jacksons and the Al Sharptons — was his expressed desire to be the president of all the people, not just the black Americans. As president, he has continued to embrace Americans of all colors — and, even if he believes that Holder, however misguided Obama may think he is, may have a point about blacks and whites not socializing together, Obama understands that now is not the time to chastise them for it.
There are, as my grandfather liked to say, bigger fish to fry.
I'm sorry if Holder doesn't think blacks and whites attend the same parties often enough or that enough of them have an after-hours beer together. But, as a lawyer, he should understand that the law can't legislate social behavior — and that such a change will take time to achieve.
America is a work in progress. More work undoubtedly remains — and not only in race relations. But, even if Holder does not acknowledge it, a lot of work has already been done.
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