UN diplo rips US ‘sin’ of slavery

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the United Nations, has pledged to focus on racial equity — claiming America’s “original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents” — as the Biden administration seeks to rejoin the UN’s Human Rights Council.

She made the remarks on Wednesday while addressing a virtual National Action Network conference, where she argued that America must approach issues of “equity and justice at the global scale . . . with humility.”

“We have to acknowledge that we are an imperfect union — and have been since the beginning — and every day we strive to make ourselves more perfect and more just. In a diverse country like ours, that means committing to do the work,” she said.

She also told the conference that if the US intends to rejoin the Human Rights Council, it needed to work with groups like NAN in order to “improve.”

“It means learning and understanding more about each other. It means engaging trailblazing groups like yours to teach, to grow, to include, to improve,” she said. “It means not forgetting our past or ignoring our present, but keeping both firmly in mind as we push for a better future.”

She recounted a speech she delivered to the UN last month to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, recalling that she shared her personal experiences as an African American.

“I shared these stories and others to acknowledge, on the international stage, that I have personally experienced one of America’s greatest imperfections,” she said.

“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.”

President Donald Trump withdrew from the Human Rights Council — whose members include China, North Korea, Russia and Saudi Arabia — in 2018, citing anti-Israel bias.