By Ryan Denson
General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under the
Bush Administration (and a registered Republican), says he “still sees” the
“dark vein of racism” in the GOP and the rest of America. This comes after Republican leadership in the Congress decided to skip the 50th anniversary of Selma’s “Bloody Sunday” and other events marking the historic civil rights catalyst.
Of the 90 members of Congress who attended the services, only 24 were from the GOP, including Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
Colin Powell, however, has decided to call the GOP out for
their lack of outreach to the black community. Since he is a black man who is a
member of the GOP, perhaps they should take what he has to say into serious
consideration.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Powell reiterated his claims of that the GOP is still plagued by a dark vein of intolerance when asked if it still exists:
“I still see it [racism]. I still see in the Republican Party, and I still see it in other parts of our country. You don’t have to be a Republican to be touched by this dark vein. America is still going through this transformation from where we were just fifty, sixty years ago. You have to remember it was just sixty, seventy years ago that we still had poll taxes, that we still had literacy tests in order to vote, that the voting places were open for two days a month for African-Americans. So we’ve come a long way, but there’s a long way to go. And we have to change the hearts and minds of Americans. And I see progress, especially in the younger generation.”
“We’ve made enormous progress. If we hadn’t made progress, [President Obama] wouldn’t have been standing there, Eric Holder wouldn’t have been with him and I wouldn’t be here right now.”
In 2013, Powell first
talked about the “dark vein” when
calling out Sarah Palin for her use of “shuckin’ and jivin'” to
describe President Obama:
“What do I mean by that [dark vein]? What I mean by that is they still sort of look down on minorities. When I see a former governor say that the president is ‘shuckin’ and jivin’ — that’s a racial-era slave term. You’ve got to think first about what’s the party actually going to represent. If it’s just going to represent the far right wing of the political spectrum, I think the party is in difficulty. I’m a moderate, but I’m still a Republican.”
It’s time that the Republicans really have the minority
outreach they say they want. They begin by ditching Republican Whip Steve
Scalise, and starting to attend events like the Selma anniversary and the March on
Washington. They can also ditch their racially
motivated suppression of voting. Those would be some great starts.
But I for one think the GOP has already shot themselves in the feet and have
missed their opportunities.
Thanks, Colin Powell, for reminding us that the dark vein of
racism in alive and well in the GOP.
Author Ryan Denson - Living blue in a red state (hopefully it will be
purple in the next 10 years). You can reach me at rdenson211@gmail.com
