"O, Iago, the pity of it, Iago"

Thus spake black Othello in despair, and thus say I but for a different reason.   During the last two decades of the 20th century and into the 21st a quite remarkable change took place quietly, almost surreptitiously, in the United States.  After the upheavals in the South during which the worst elements of segregation were dismantled, there took place gradually, first here, then there, then almost everywhere, a movement in which black citizens began to take their proper places in American society, first rising to senior ranks in the armed forces and the police, then as councilmen, mayors and State legislators.  Eventually, the USA, with the endorsement of far and away the majority of the white populace, had black men and women in the highest echelons of the Federal government, and in 2008 it culminated in the election of the first black president.  Within two years all these advances have turned to dust and ashes.

I would be happy, no, I would be delighted, if any of my e-pals 'over there' tell me I am wrong but as seen from 'over here', racial antoganism in the USA appears to have multiplied like malignant cancer cells and all the good progress of the past 25-odd years has been set at naught.  That this has taken place under the leadership of a black president is an irony that sticks in the craw.  Apropos my preceding post, Politico provides the details of testimony given yesterday by a senior lawyer at the Department of Justice (DoJ):

A Justice Department prosecutor defied his superiors by testifying at a U.S. Civil Rights Commission hearing Friday, where he leveled an explosive allegation: top officials in the department gutted a voter intimidation case against a fringe African American militant group because the suspects were black and their alleged victims were white.

Attempts by DoJ supporters to smear this whistleblower, Christopher Coates, as a died-in-the-wool Republican withered when it was known that at one time he was the top lawyer for UCLA, the American Civil Liberties Union.  He is the second, high-ranking lawyer from within the DoJ to accuse Obama's political appointees of a deliberate failure to protect the voting rights of white people against threats by blacks.

Coates accused the Justice Department of caving in to outside influence groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which he said demanded that prosecutors drop the case. “Many of these groups act…as special interest lobbies for racial and ethnic minorities and demand not equal treatment but enforcement of the Voting Rights Act only for racial and language minorities,” Coates said.

Not the least important of the unintended consequence's of Obama's justice policy is that it will make it virtually impossible for a black man to be elected president again for decades.

 

Comments

[dearieme]

"it will make it virtually impossible for a black man to be elected president again for decades": maybes, but that doesn't rule out Condi Rice.

[David Duff]

Alas, 'DM', I fear her moment has long gone.

[dearieme]

Oh I doubt that she had a moment. She's probably too sane to be interested in the job.

[David Duff]

I know what you mean, she was - is - a very accomplished lady. I'm not sure how well she did amongst the 'Alpha males'(!) surrounding Bush. I suppose we'll have to wait until the history books are written.

[Dom]

Somewhat off topic, but not altogether unrelated, is this phone message from a DC Congresswoman. It's on youtube, so everyone knows about it, but trust me, no one will investigate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYE3uk-eBwQ&feature=player_embedded

[David Duff]

Oh yes, Dom, I read about her - dumb or what? And perhaps, if the GOP win the House something might be done.