This is completely out of context. He said that before civil rights were realized, and Black Americans were regularly structurally discriminated against. The special thing that needed to be done was to not let things remain the status quo but to allow Black people to become full members of society.
I love it when people who have no idea about our profession start doing this race baiting bullshit. I’m really hoping (too optimistic, I know) that HN will collectively one day start flagging articles written by clueless people who spend an awful lot of words to say less than nothing.
No, you don't understand (/s), now he is in the 'in group' and gets brownie points, and because he used that logic, you can't criticise him or you are a racist/something other.
I personally don’t think it’s ok to refer to a person like that, it’s a rather gross oversimplification of a human being.
We ought to be more sophisticated than that.