United Nations Amb. Linda Thomas Greenfield dismissed the United States as having been founded on “white supremacy” that continues to permeate all of the country’s institutions in a speech to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network this week.
Explaining that if the U.S. is going to become part of the UN Human Rights Council, Thomas-Greenfield invoked Critical Race Theory teachings by claiming the country has to own up to the historic racism that allegedly permeates our “founding documents and principles.”
“I spoke on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. That day – and commemoration – was personal for me. So, I told the UN some personal stories,” she said.
“I told them about how my great-grandmother Mary Thomas, born in 1865, was the child of a slave. Just three generations back from me. I grew up in the segregated South. I was bussed to a segregated school. On weekends, the Klan burned crosses on lawns in our neighborhood,” Thomas-Greenfield continued.
“I shared these stories and others to acknowledge, on the international stage, that I have personally experienced one of America’s greatest imperfections,” she added.
“I have seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles. But I also shared these stories to offer up an insight, a simple truth I’ve learned over the years: Racism is not the problem of the person who experiences it,” the UN ambassador went on.
“Those of us who experience racism cannot, and should not, internalize it, despite the impact it can have on our everyday lives. Racism is the problem of the racist. And it is the problem of the society that produces the racist. And in today’s world, that is every society,” she said.
The UN Human Rights Council, which is comprised of 47 countries, gives outsized membership to African and Asian countries (13 each). Eastern and Western European countries have six and seven members respectively, while Latin American and Caribbean countries have eight seats. Member states are voted upon by the General Assembly “through direct and secret ballot.”
Current members include some of the worst known abusers of human rights including China, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Venezuela.
Continuing, Thomas-Greenfield said that racism in the U.S. “takes many forms.”
“It’s the white supremacy that led to the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other black Americans,” she said, though thus far, there has been no evidence to suggest any racial component to those incidents.
“It’s the spike in hate crimes over the past three years – against Latino Americans, Sikh and Muslim Americans, Jewish Americans, and immigrants. And it’s the bullying, discrimination, brutality, and violence that Asian Americans face every day, especially since the outbreak of COVID-19,” she noted further, adding that the Biden administration is making “racial equity a top priority across” the government.
The UN ambassador also said that she has “experienced racism in countless international contexts” including “overly invasive searches at airports, to police racially profiling my son, to being made to wait behind white patrons for a table at a restaurant.”
“Racism was and continues to be a daily challenge abroad. And for millions, it’s more than a challenge. It’s deadly,” she added.
Thomas-Greenfield was blasted online by critics who saw her comments as unnecessarily divisive and hypocritical.
“Imagine hating your own country this much,” one user wrote on Twitter, as others joined in as well.
Imagine hating your own country this much. https://t.co/RRk8FgxsMn
— Samuel Martinez (@shmpolitico) April 14, 2021
dems gonna dem
— Doctor/Master/Esquire are my preferred pronouns (@jer2911tx) April 14, 2021
This is insane. https://t.co/MhWF51ogf4
— Tim Wood 🇺🇸⚔️ (@TimOnPoint) April 14, 2021
She's apologizing for America even though the UN Human Rights Council currently includes Pakistan, Somalia, Qatar, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan, and Libya https://t.co/X0BA3dS3k6
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) April 14, 2021
This is so disgraceful.
— 𝓑𝓮𝓷 ⚜️☘️ (@BenMarleor) April 15, 2021
Libya is chaining and trading black slaves today. Sudan is accused of committing genocide against the blacks in Sudan today.
— Weeb Pride World Wide (@CYBERVIOLENCE_) April 15, 2021
Seen this lunacy, @realchrisrufo
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) April 14, 2021
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
- Jan. 6 committee chair Benny Thompson offers a stunning take on potential Trump criminal actions - January 2, 2022
- Life-long New Yorker posts ‘sad’ Twitter ode on post-pandemic Big Apple being ‘shadow of its former self’ - January 2, 2022
- NYPD officer shot in head in police lot as he slept in vehicle between shifts - January 2, 2022
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
BPR INSIDER COMMENTS
Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!