Two left-liberals speak about race in America

An article about the black law professor Derrick Bell at Discover The Network, David Horowitz’s website on the left, has a collection of Bell quotes designed to demonstrate his radicalism. Among them is this:

[T]he racism that made slavery feasible is far from dead…

Now to say that the racial sentiments that justified and were associated with black slavery are still alive and active in the America of today essentially denies the whole American tragedy of race and the revolutions of law, conscience, and behavior that this country has undergone in order to treat its black citizens justly. It’s as though, in Bell’s mind, nothing has really changed in America from the days of slavery and Jim Crow. However, as I read this extreme, leftist, anti-American quote, I was reminded of a similarly disturbing and offensive quote that had come from a very different political figure. A quick Google search turned it up:

My nation’s journey toward justice has not been easy, and it is not over. For racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with segregation.

This extreme, leftist, anti-American statement was, of course, spoken by none other than President Bush at Goree Island, Senegal, July 8, 2003.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 22, 2005 08:33 PM | Send