{"id":15951,"date":"2015-02-16T18:56:40","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T23:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=15951"},"modified":"2015-02-16T18:56:40","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T23:56:40","slug":"wapo-opinions-james-comeys-candor-on-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=15951","title":{"rendered":"WaPo: Opinions: James Comey\u2019s candor on race"},"content":{"rendered":"

WaPo: Opinions: James Comey\u2019s candor on race<\/a> by E.J. Dionne:<\/p>\n

Last Thursday\u2019s speech by FBI Director James Comey at Georgetown University was remarkable on its own terms, but revolutionary in the context of his agency\u2019s history. You wonder if Hoover would have accused Comey of subversive intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us in law enforcement must be honest enough to acknowledge that much of our history is not pretty,\u201d Comey said. \u201cAt many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained why a copy of Attorney General Robert Kennedy\u2019s approval of Hoover\u2019s request to wiretap Dr. King sits on his desk: \u201cThe entire application is five sentences long, it is without fact or substance, and is predicated on the naked assertion that there is \u2018Communist influence in the racial situation.\u2019\u201d He calls agents\u2019 attention to the document, he said, \u201cto ensure that we remember our mistakes and that we learn from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And who would think an FBI director would cite \u201cEveryone\u2019s a Little Bit Racist,\u201d a song from the Broadway hit \u201cAvenue Q?\u201d His point: \u201cMany people in our white-majority culture have unconscious racial biases and react differently to a white face than a black face.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WaPo: Opinions: James Comey\u2019s candor on race by E.J. Dionne: Last Thursday\u2019s speech by FBI Director James Comey at Georgetown University was remarkable on its own terms, but revolutionary in the context of his agency\u2019s history. You wonder if Hoover … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15952,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15951\/revisions\/15952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}