the past

I agree, but the unfortunate thing is that some, black and white, focus on that primus as being the root of the problem. If we start and end with that primus we have addressed or solved nothing. Its not about who today is responsible for the past, but we cannot ignore that our past has created our present.
The statement does not address that the facts of the past do have an impact on the present, that the present actions will have an impact on the future, and that if not today, then tomorrow, we as a society have to realize that we are our brother's keeper.
I can not think of any form of discrimination in this country that has arisen overnight, or even in the last twenty years. Whether it racial, sexual, gender oriented, religious, geographical, size, age, class, income or physical... every form of discrimination in this country has existed from the beginning. They do not continue from being passive movements. They have been aggressive, repressive and violent. If we are going to maintain that our society, nation, is morally exceptional then the struggle to end discrimination has to be as aggressive.