Holder: Subtle racism a greater threat than ‘outbursts of bigotry’
By Eyder Peralta, NPR
During separate commencement addresses, Attorney General Eric Holder and first lady Michelle Obama delivered a similar message: On this 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated schools, we should acknowledge that progress has been made, but in many ways systematic racism still exists, albeit in a more subtle way that is just as sinister.
The Kansas City Star reports Obama spoke at the graduating ceremony for five Topeka high schools Friday night. According to the paper, Obama said schools, for example, are still segregated and “too often, those schools aren’t equal, especially ones attended by students of color, which too often lag behind with crumbling classrooms and less experienced teachers.”
Holder spoke at Morgan State University. Referring to the Donald Sterling fiasco, Holder said that the past few weeks have given us a perfect example of clear, “outbursts of bigotry.”
But the real trouble, the greatest threat 60 years after Brown v. Board is what he called “subtle racism.”