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<\/a><\/p>\nJuly 16, 2014<\/p>\n
Attorney General Holder is right: Racial animus plays role in Obama opposition
\nBy\u00a0Morris Dees, Founder, Chief Trial Attorney<\/p>\n
Right-wing pundits are\u00a0jumping all over\u00a0Attorney General Eric Holder for daring to suggest on Sunday that \u201cracial animus\u201d plays a role in the \u201clevel of vehemence\u201d that\u2019s been directed at President Obama. They\u2019re denouncing him for \u201cplaying the race card\u201d and \u201cstoking racial divisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Who do they think they\u2019re fooling?<\/p>\n
The rhetoric is what\u2019s hateful. Calling people out for it is not.<\/p>\n
The racism Holder described has been obvious since the 2008 campaign, when Obama was portrayed as someone who was not a \u201creal American\u201d \u2013 a Muslim, a Kenyan, a communist, even a terrorist sympathizer.<\/p>\n
Since then, an entire movement has been built around the thoroughly discredited notion that the president\u2019s birth certificate is a fake. And that\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n
Newt Gingrich has called Obama the\u00a0\u201cfood stamp president\u201d\u00a0and referred to his\u00a0\u201cKenyan, anti-colonial behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rush Limbaugh has said\u00a0Obama \u2013 and Oprah Winfrey, too, by the way \u2013 have reached the pinnacle of their professions only because they\u2019re black. He added this week that \u201cso-called conservative media types\u201d praised Holder\u2019s nomination only because\u00a0he\u2019sblack.<\/p>\n
Glenn Beck has said\u00a0the president, whose mother was white, has a \u201cdeep-seated hatred for white people, or white culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conservative hero and former rock star Ted Nugent, who was invited to campaign with the GOP nominee for Texas governor,\u00a0called the president a \u201csubhuman mongrel.\u201d<\/p>\n
A\u00a0Confederate flag was waved\u00a0in front of the White House during last year\u2019s \u201cMillion Vet March.\u201d<\/p>\n