John Lewis says ‘stains of racism are still deeply embedded in American society’
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) reacted to Rudy Giuliani’s remark last week that President Obama does not love America and explained how it is connected to race in America in an interview with USA Today‘s Susan Page.
Lewis connected the comments to racism, saying “we have not yet created a post-racial society.”
“It’s so strange, ever since he’s been president, people have been trying to take something from him that he is not American, that he was not born here,” Lewis said. But we must keep in mind that the scar and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in American society. We have a distance to go. We are not done yet. We have not yet created a post-racial society.”
SUSAN PAGE, USA TODAY: Let me ask you one other question about something that is very current in the news and that is this comment that Rudy Giuliani made last week when he said that President Obama doesn’t love America. And some people say that that is a remark driven by race, an effort to make President Obama seem different from other presidents, not fully American. Do you see that?
REP. JOHN LEWIS (D-Georgia): It’s so strange, ever since he’s been president, people have been trying to take something from him that he is not American, that he was not born here. But we must keep in mind that the scar and stains of racism are still deeply embedded in American society. We have a distance to go. We are not done yet. We have not yet created a post-racial society.
Lewis was the youngest member of the Big Six leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, famous chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), playing a key role in the struggle to end legalized racial discrimination and segregation.
