Patterico's Pontifications

3/1/2011

Holder: The DOJ Does Not Discriminate in Favor of My People

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 9:45 pm



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

That is a paraphrase (note to Tim Rutten: this is not a quote) designed to capture the deep contradiction in Eric Holder’s testimony today (technically yesterday in my time zone).  Since we are still doing a link boycott of Politico for its bullying, the workaround comes from USA Today

First, of course Eric Holder tells us there is no racial discrimination in the Department of Justice:

“This Department of Justice does not enforce the law on the basis of race,” Holder insisted.

But that’s what he is expected to say, regardless of the truth.  Years ago when I had to go to court to protect myself from disability-based discrimination, my attorney at the time (I wasn’t a lawyer, yet) said that when it came to disability discrimination I enjoyed a perverse advantage.  “They haven’t learn to lie about it, yet,” he said, “not like with race or sex.”

But if you pay close attention, the truth just might peak out.  Here’s a far more telling encounter:

The Attorney General seemed to take personal offense at a comment Culberson read in which former Democratic activist Bartle Bull called the incident the most serious act of voter intimidation he had witnessed in his career.

Now, to remind you (and to make Beldar a happy man), this is the kind of thing Bartle Bull was telling us:

Anyway, on with Eric Holder’s reaction:

“Think about that,” Holder said. “When you compare what people endured in the South in the 60s to try to get the right to vote for African Americans, to compare what people subjected to that with what happened in Philadelphia, which was inappropriate … to describe it in those terms I think does a great disservice to people who put their lives on the line for my people,” said Holder, who is black.

(Emphasis added.)  Now you could get distracted by the merits of Holder’s response.  I don’t think either Holder or anyone else knows all that Bull witnessed in his life.  I don’t know if, in his lifetime, Mr. Bull has seen anything that brazen.  And Bull seems to be as much talking about the response of the Federal Government as the actions of the Black Pather morons.

But notice that phrasing.  His people. And the article felt it was important to note at that time that Holder was black.  Because we all knew what he meant by his people.  If you are white, Asian, Native American, you are not one of “his people.”

How many times have hacky liberals accused conservatives or republicans of trying to make Obama into an “Other.” This webpage describes the theory as follows and its pretty standard fare:

The Other is an individual who is perceived by the group as not belonging, as being different in some fundamental way. Any stranger becomes the Other. The group sees itself as the norm and judges those who do not meet that norm (that is, who are different in any way) as the Other. Perceived as lacking essential characteristics possessed by the group, the Other is almost always seen as a lesser or inferior being and is treated accordingly. The Other in a society may have few or no legal rights, may be characterized as less intelligent or as immoral, and may even be regarded as sub-human.

And Eric Holder has told the vast majority of the American people, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Native Americans, white, Hispanic, and so on, that in his mind you are an Other.  Not one of his kind.  But we are supposed to believe he enforces the law in a color blind fashion?

Oh, by the way, in regards to why the Department of Justice dropped the Black Panther case, in case you thought they were just too busy and needed to do some triage, there is this, too:

This is also the same Justice Department division where, during a Voting Section staff meeting called to address chronic tardiness, numerous attorneys demanded permission to arrive at work up to 30 minutes late without penalty. Others wanted to work from home.

At that 2009 meeting, then-Section Chief Christopher Coates refused to tolerate this brazen disregard of job rules. The new chief has reversed course and even allows litigation managers to work from home.

Working from home is supposed to improve productivity. But that certainly hasn’t happened in the Voting Section. In the 26 months since Holder took over, it has filed only one lawsuit under Section 2 of the VRA, and that was a case developed during the Bush administration, filed by J. Christian Adams.

The section has also filed only four cases under the VRA’s language minority provisions, all of which were also started during the Bush years. And the National Voter Registration Act? No action at all, other than to drop a lawsuit started under Bush.

To put this in context, the Bush administration – which Holder and his Civil Rights Division chief, Tom Perez, miss no opportunity to criticize – averaged two Section 2 cases every year, brought more cases under the language minority provisions than in all other years combined since 1965, and filed 10 cases under the National Voter Registration Act. All of this is easily verifiable at the division’s own website.

Meanwhile, Holder and Perez preposterously claim that the division is “once again open for business.”

That certainly doesn’t jibe with reports from lawyers inside DOJ, who tell of Voting Section attorneys so bored that many spend the day playing computer Solitaire, watching videos, and venting at the lack of activity.

So another game of solitaire?  Or enforce the law even against the Black Panthers?  Decisions.

Hat tip: Instapundit and Althouse who asks, “[s]hould the Attorney General be saying ‘my people’… and not mean the People of the United States?”

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

23 Responses to “Holder: The DOJ Does Not Discriminate in Favor of My People”

  1. locked up with all of my people

    is there a better song? maybe that daft punk one I guess

    I’d forgotten how good this sounds

    happyfeet (ab5779)

  2. Eric Holder, “Oops.”

    Torquemada (2a42d3)

  3. I’m sure that when holder said, “My people,” he meant Americans.

    /sarc

    Have Blue (854a6e)

  4. Why, Aaron! Don’t know you know that it’s different when Holder says it? It’s like the first motto on the wall in “Animal Farm.”

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  5. It’s one of those ‘definition of the word “is” things’. “The DOJ does not discriminate in favor of my people” translates as “The DOJ does discriminate against those that, in my view, do not favor my people”.

    Icy Texan (b4bda0)

  6. The Wisconsin protesters’ minds and methods are stuck in the 60’s and it seems Holder’s viewpoint is, too (in a slightly different way). I thought conservatives were the ones supposedly rooted in the past. Guess not, huh?

    elissa (447ac7)

  7. When are we going to have that national conversation on race, Mr. Holder?

    daleyrocks (ae76ce)

  8. Race matters. Always has; always will.

    There’s your conversation. That is all.

    Cornel West puppet (b4bda0)

  9. I’m bothered, of course, by the fact that the Attorney General of the United States seems committed to the notion that only blacks can be the target of illegal discrimination on the basis of race. That, of course, is not the law, and is contrary to the law, and it’s shameful for an Attorney General of the United States to pretend otherwise.

    I’m frustrated by his, and his partisans’ attachment to race as their most potent form of identity politics. They do it, of course, because it remains effective with a solid plurality of the Left. It’s so desperately cynical, and it corrodes everyone and everything it touches.

    But I’m saddened that the Attorney General of the United States is so thoroughly seeped in the perpetual victimhood of “his people.” He is self-righteously self-blinded to his own racism.

    Beldar (d162eb)

  10. Beldar

    Holder didnt suffer, both his parents were succesful real estate agents, he went to a limited access public school for the gifted – which was essentially a defacto private school, then on to Columbia University on full scholarship, then had gainfu employement within the government and private sectors

    Eric Holder hasn’t walked the walk of this people he is talking about.

    EricPWJohnson (06f365)

  11. “Because we all knew what he meant by his people.” Actually, I do find this vague. “His people” could be the members of the New Black Panther Party involved in swinging the billy club and intimidating voters. It could be all individuals of African descent, or it could be the folks who work for him in the Injustice Department.

    Bill G. (81d252)

  12. Watch out Eric. There are a lot of people out there who believe that a sob is an sob regardless of race, creed or color and the same applies to racist idiots. My people are not anti-american racists.

    JPE (0609ab)

  13. Am I the only one who is troubled by this administration’s selective enforcement of the law?

    Justice had an air tight case of voter intimidation against the New Black Panthers. They didn’t even mount a defense. The whole incident was broadcast on Fox and witnessed by a liberal civil rights attorney who worked for Bobby Kennedy! The chief law enforcement officer in America drops the charge and his supervisors in the voting rights section tell the attorneys not to enforce civil rights laws if the plaintiff is white and the defendant is black. The issue is not that the action was voter intimidation, which it clearly was. If the Klan had done what the NBPP thugs had done, they would be in jail. The issue is race. The Attorney General of the United States is enforcing the law based upon race.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  14. I am reminded of a story Bush told after 9-11. He said he was touring an aircraft carrier near afghanistan, and he came upon some bombs with various 9-11-related messages written on them, like NYPD, or FDNY. He asked the pilot, “did you have a personal connection to anyone who died on 9-11?”

    “Yes,” the pilot replied, “they were Americans.”

    Beldar

    Well, at least you got some more video of Ms. Kelly out of this post, right? (just teasing)

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  15. Yes, the issue is race and power. Democrats use race to maintain their power.

    James (898ef5)

  16. It sounded like he was conflating the people getting attacked by dogs 40 years ago with the thugs in 2010 with clubs at the polling place in pennsylvania when he talked of “putting their lives on the line”. The people who were in fear for their lives were the white voters.

    dunce (b89258)

  17. James, they use the races, the genders, the sexual orientations, the poverties . . . whatever group qualifies as “disadvantaged minorities” in their eyes — their preying, taking-advantage-of-the-most-vulnerable-themselves (how ironic!) eyes.

    Icy Texan (b4bda0)

  18. JPE

    ITs more akin to a rich man telling us about the plight of the poor, implying that he is one with them

    He isnt, wasnt, never will be. Is their racial discrimination? Yes, and when he starts prosecuting the rainbow of racial discrimination in this country – he could maybe make those kind of statements with some, albeit some, credibility, not incredulous.

    EricPWJohnson (569da1)

  19. More politicization of the DOJ.

    Tanny O'Haley (12193c)

  20. Shorter Eric Holder: You are acting stupidly, but I won’t cooperate in your investigation to prove it because to do so might prove otherwise.

    daleyrocks (ae76ce)

  21. This is the most racist, corrupt, lawless, POS administration in the history of the US of A.

    No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.

    Tie (314a3d)

  22. ““This Department of Justice does not enforce the law on the basis of race,” Holder insisted.”

    Shorter Eric Holder: Lemme tell you about that second set of Pigford Reparations for my people.

    daleyrocks (ae76ce)

  23. So I suppose that when a Republican Attorney General replaces Holder in January 2013, we can expect vigorous of enforcement of laws favoring white people?

    What kind of racist jerk is this man? Exactly what does “Equal protection under law” mean? You know, the motto in the frieze of the Justice Building in Washington?

    bobdog (166386)


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