Our new Attorney General, Eric Holder, has found himself in hot water with some comments that he made on Wednesday: “In things racial we have always been, and I believe continue to be in too many ways, essentially, a nation of cowards.” Pundits, particularly those on the right, have called these words “reprehensible” and “inflammatory.” While he actually said nothing new, it seems to be the fact that he used the word “coward” that has people upset. But which people? White people? Black people? Brown people?
Beyond this single statement, listen to this portion of his speech and try to find something that is outlandish.
What he said, in a nutshell, is that Americans are afraid to discuss race. What is wrong with making that claim? Is he off-base about that? He didn’t single out any group. Or are some folks assuming that he implied that only white people are the cowards? How would this be received if this was George Bush saying this? Or Bill Clinton?
Lots of people are saying that fifty million cowards seemed to have gotten beyond their fear and put an African American in power who would then appoint Holder as the Attorney General. However, he’s not discussing any singular act of racism or anti-racism or racial preference but, rather, the way we live our lives — which is to tolerate other races in our work lives but maintain very segregated personal lives. By the way, the data pretty clearly support him on this.
The overarching problem with Holder’s words is that white people don’t know how to interpret them–and so they return to the old script: “It’s a black guy speaking about race. So he must be critiquing us.”
Another element of the old script is that most any statement made about race from one group is going to offend another group. That’s exactly what Holder is talking about. So if we’re not a nation of cowards, we would just allow him his critique and keep talking to each other, don’t you think?
In my opinion the people who are mad about Holder’s comments about Americans are just not used to hearing a African American attorney speaking words like this, just him saying a word like that makes people gasp. But if they took the word in the context in which it was used then they would probably be less mad than they are. I don’t believe he said anything wrong. I completely agree with what he said. People do need to confront race because it is a big part of America. Also, he never explicitly stated who the cowards were. They could be whites, African Americans, Asians, or anyone. Race is a topic that everyone is thinking about, but that most are afraid to talk about and it shouldn’t be this way. There’s no way to hide it so the best thing for us to do is just confront and deal with it. I think him being African American didn’t really help his cause. Imagine if it had been a prominent white man who would have made the same comment. I don’t think white people would think he was talking about them and would be more willing to talk about race. Race is usually spoken by people of color not because they are the one’s more exposed to it, but because white people think that African Americans are the ones who are capable of talking about race. I like the fact that he said that word because now they are going to argue about the fact that he is not afraid of expressing himself like that, and if Americans aren’t cowards then what’s the problem with him saying that word. Just in general, it’s going to be really hard for White people to get used to the word race, because they are always going to be the majority in the USA, plus they are always seen as white supremacy, so the people that are affect by race it’s the one that talks about it because they are the one being affected by it. So If I was white I’m not going to care about race, what for, if me being an American is perfect. Most of the people live like America are just fine how it is and we all get along; well when everyone goes home is not like that. Because we all different we all started in a different place, different environment so not everyone is going to think the same about race.
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