Black, White, Red—We’re All Yellow Now [UPDATED]
You’re not going to believe this. You’re simply not going to believe this:
Attorney General Eric Holder described the United States Wednesday as a nation of cowards on matters of race, saying most Americans avoid discussing awkward racial issues.
In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.
“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” said Holder, nation’s first black attorney general.
Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, Holder said, but “we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race.”
Oh, I’m sorry. Did you want to talk about race? Permit me to start.
[Bleep] you, you [bleeping] [bleep].
You’re right. I’m too much of a coward to employ the kind of language choking my heart on reading that statement from the top justice official in our land.
Do we have to mention the thousands of “cowards” who died in the Civil War? The hundreds of “cowards” who participated in the Freedom Summers? The single “coward” who made the war between the states the war to end slavery?
What a despicable human being Eric Holder is. Resignation is too good for him. He should be pilloried.
UPDATE
In his first major speech since being confirmed, the nation’s first black attorney general told an overflow crowd celebrating Black History Month at the Justice Department the nation remains “voluntarily socially segregated.”
…
Holder urged Americans of all races to use Black History Month as a time to have a forthright national conversation between blacks and whites to discuss aspects of race which are ignored because they are uncomfortable.
Oh, is that what he said?
Americans love Americans—but they understandably feel ambivalence toward hyphenated-Americans. Blacks have lived in America since before there was an America; they have been free men and women for more than 145 years; they have been guaranteed equal protection under the law for more than forty years. Their history is American history, and should be taught with “non-black” history—not in a parallel track.
It’s bothersome to me that someone can decry “voluntary social segregation” while at the same time participating in it.
Uncomfortable enough for you?
attilla girl said,
February 18, 2009 @ 10:22 pm
Maybe I’m a coward, but at least I pay my taxes.
Martino said,
February 19, 2009 @ 8:58 am
When we discuss race, we are called racists. When we don’t, we are called racists. Maybe Holder should just do his fucking job and leave philisophical discussions to those capable of discussion. I mean after all, he’s a man of color. And what does that tell you?
Carol said,
February 19, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
Ummmm, nothing?
His color tells me nothing, but his hatefulness speaks volumes, deliberately insulting the entire country. It makes me long for the 18th century when you could still call someone out for an offense against your honor. I daresay the line to call out Mr. Holder would go the entire length of the Mall and back again.
By the way, the black family across the street has never discussed race with me, nor I with them. I trust that makes them just as “cowardly” as little old anemically pale me.