Holder expressed support for affirmative action, saying that he “can’t actually imagine a time in which the need for more diversity would ever cease.”
“Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices,” Holder said. “The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin ... When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?”
He added that as a Columbia student, he “saw diversity and interacted with people who had different views.”
“People come from so many different backgrounds and bring so many different perspectives that the study of contemporary civilization is enriched by those people,” he said.
Holder—who was appointed Attorney General in 2009 by President Barack Obama, CC ’84—also fielded a question about why the Obama administration has not yet shut down the American detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
“Congress wouldn’t let us,” Holder said. “President Obama came in and he said we want to close Guantánamo in a year, and here we are four years later.”
“Affirmative action has been an issue since segregation practices,” Holder said. “The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin ... When do people of color truly get the benefits to which they are entitled?”
He added that as a Columbia student, he “saw diversity and interacted with people who had different views.”
“People come from so many different backgrounds and bring so many different perspectives that the study of contemporary civilization is enriched by those people,” he said.
Holder—who was appointed Attorney General in 2009 by President Barack Obama, CC ’84—also fielded a question about why the Obama administration has not yet shut down the American detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
“Congress wouldn’t let us,” Holder said. “President Obama came in and he said we want to close Guantánamo in a year, and here we are four years later.”
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