Holder Says US Is ‘Nation of Cowards’ in Racial Discussions

Posted Feb 18, 2009 1:44 PM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Attorney General Eric Holder isn’t afraid to talk about race, and he says Americans shouldn’t be either.

In a speech to Justice Department employees commemorating Black History Month, Holder said Americans are reluctant to discuss awkward racial issues and tend to segregate outside the workplace, the Associated Press reports.

“Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” Holder, the first black attorney general, said in the speech. “Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race.”

Holder says the nation has “done a pretty good job in melding the races in the workplace” but there is little significant interaction outside the job. Rather than debating issues such as affirmative action in a nuanced way, Americans embrace talk of quick, easy solutions and retreat to their “race-protected cocoons,” he said.

Americans can “hasten the day when we truly become one America” if we “engage one another more routinely,” he said.

Comments

B. McLeod
Feb 18, 2009 2:16 PM CST

Maybe it isn’t “fear” at all. Maybe it is just that most people in the country don’t see any reason to obsess on “race” as the central focus of their existence. Maybe people are just bored to tears with the stalemate between racial politics and race-neutral constitutional principles. Maybe people think the topic has just been done to death, and aren’t that interested in hearing Eric Holder hold forth on his perceived “unresolved issues.”

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associate
Feb 18, 2009 4:05 PM CST

When has a middle aged white man ever opened his mouth, said anything other than “white people trample the rights of black people”, and NOT been declared a racist.

There will be no discussion until that issue is addressed.

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J.D.
Feb 18, 2009 4:13 PM CST

Both comments above are exactly correct. Unfortunately, from previous postings, methinks that both McLEOD and associate are liberals—-in other words, they’ve created the problem they despise by advancing liberalism.

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B. McLeod
Feb 18, 2009 5:12 PM CST

Perhaps. But in fairness, J.D., you probably think Adam Smith was a “liberal” too.

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Jennifer
Feb 19, 2009 3:00 AM CST

Love the insight on race politics in the commentary here. I hope the Obama administration brings revitalizes the civic dialogue on race relations. No need to “obsess” on race, since we only just elected our first person of color as a president. We have arrived right? We have absolutely no race issues. Racist people no longer exist in the U.S. We only study historical racism as a part of our country’s formation.

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J.D.
Feb 19, 2009 9:28 AM CST

Obama needs to “revitalize the civic dialogue on race relations”?? When did this debate ever stop? As was recently said:

“Oh, thank goodness Obama fired the starter’s pistol in the race to discuss race. Here I’d been under the impression that every major university (and minor one for that matter) in the country already had boatloads of courses—often entire majors—dedicated to race in America. I’d even read somewhere that professors had incorporated racial themes and issues into classes on everything from Shakespeare to the mating habits of snail darters. And scratching faintly in the back of my mind, I felt some vague memory that these same universities recruited black students and other racial minorities, on the grounds that interracial conversations on campus are as important as talking about math, science and literature. A ghost of an image in my mind’s eye seemed to reveal African American studies centers, banners for Black History Month and copies of books like ‘Race Matters’ and ‘The Future of the Race’ lined up on shelves at college bookstores.

“Were all of the corporate diversity consultants and racial sensitivity seminars mere apparitions in a dream? Also disappearing in the memory hole, apparently, were the debates that followed Hurricane Katrina, Trent Lott’s remarks about Strom Thurmond, the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas. Not to mention the ongoing national chatter about affirmative action, racial disparities in prison sentences and racial profiling by law enforcement…..”

Read the rest of Jonah Goldberg’s piece here:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/a_race_conversation_what_are_y.html

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J.D.
Feb 19, 2009 6:05 PM CST

Honestly, I’m beginning to think that Holder is a racist. He’s beginning to look pathetic. The law is BLIND, Sir, so let’s start talking about the LAW, Mr. Attorney General. If you want to “talk about race” then go look for a position in the NAACP.

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J.D.
Feb 19, 2009 6:15 PM CST

Well, AG Holder, here’s your conversation about race: House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina is now accusing GOP governors who have fundamental misgivings about the trillion-dollar stimulus of opposing the law because they don’t like black people. Ha!

“The governor of Louisiana expressed opposition. Has the highest African-American population in the country. Governor of Mississippi expressed opposition. The governor of Texas, and the governor of South Carolina. These four governor’s represent states that are in the black belt. I was insulted by that,” Clyburn said. “All of this was a slap in the face of African-Americans. It had nothing to do with Governor Sanford.”

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Holder Says US Is ‘Nation of Cowards’ in Racial Discussions

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