Eric Holder was the first African American to be appointed to the position of U.S. attorney general.

This historic moment could have brought triumph to sensitive topic of race relations in America.

Despite this, Holder proved that if you view the world through a lens that sees race everywhere you turn, you do the opposite: dividing Americans and increasing tension.

Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech made it clear that equality would be achieved when “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” He dreamed of a world in which African Americans were not led to “distrust of all white people.” He wanted all races to see the best in people because that is the only way to move past the issue of race altogether.

While on his way out of office, Holder stated in an interview with Politico that he believes those that disagree with him were in part motivated by race. The irony here is that this comes on the heels of a Republican Senate confirming his replacement, Loretta Lynch, who is an African-American woman.

In 2011, Holder was involved in a controversy in which the government sold about 2,000 weapons to Mexican drug gangs. The operation went sour, and one of the firearms was used to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent. Holder and the Justice Department refused to release documents to Congress about the operation, and he became the first attorney general to be held in both civil and criminal contempt by Congress. This is only one of numerous controversies that evoke criticism from his opposition.

Last summer Holder again said he believes that there is “a certain racial component” in those that oppose him. He’s made statements like this all through his six-year term.

There are real reasons to disagree with Holder’s policies and actions. The fact that we have a democratically elected African American president in a country in which African Americans represent only 14 percent of the population is evidence that Americans are overwhelmingly not racist.

Playing the race card all the time creates a “boy who cried wolf” scenario. When real racial injustices arise, people tend to tune out and not take them seriously. This is why King urged us to give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to racial issues. Constantly viewing the world through a lens of injustice creates fosters animosity. Unfortunately, Holder has used his position to divide the nation further, when he had an unbelievable opportunity to unite.