Eric Holder – Saying What Needs to be Said – Eloquently
For all the time and money the right wing in America has spent since the early 1970s think tanking, waxing philosophical about “conservatism,” and mouthing slogans like academic freedom and free speech, they sure spend a lot of time in the pursuit of distilling well-laid, thoughtful argumentation into lies.
From what I’m seeing on the Nets tonight and hearing from the Father Coughlins on talk radio, Eric Holder will be their next victim.
The Attorney General spoke to employees at the Justice Department today on the occaision of Black History Month. Holder, being a veteran of a few political slugfests, one might have expected a saccharine speech calling on all the old Civil Rights heroes of the past. Holder, also being an intellectual, actually added in a substantive way to our ongoing national debate about race.
The Right, tonight, is focusing only on this, however:
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.
One sentence, incendiary enough within the context of Holder’s broader remarks, is being used to cast Holder as the Right’s latest America-hating liberal pinata. But perhaps, Holder’s intellectual bravery will trump the Right’s endless intellectual dishonesty.
Here’s what immediately followed “a nation of cowards.”
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. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us. But we must do more- and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must – and will – lead the nation to the “new birth of freedom” so long ago promised by our greatest President. This is our duty and our solemn obligation.
We don’t talk enough about race – one to another – now do we?
Holder speaks too about Americans challenged by racial subjects or issues “free to retreat to our race protected cocoons where much is comfortable and where progress is not really made.” What I believe he is talking about is our propensity as blacks, whites, latinos, asians to self segregate.
In my own life, I think back to my time in the U.S. Navy. I thought it was rather cool to be a white boy from white bread Lancaster, Ohio and be thrown onto a ship with people of all races and from all over the country. In a two-year period the U.S.S. Raleigh spent 10 months in a combat zone in the Persian Gulf of the Iran-Iraq War where we worked our asses off and earned hazardous duty pay. But, on the mess decks and during liberty ports of call, we self segregated. When I came home and went to Ohio University, I thought to myself, “Campus will be different.” It wasn’t. The darks and the pales separated at every chance – dining halls, fraternities, bars, whatever.
Holder is telling us today that this is understandable to an extent, but odd nonetheless, and counterproductive to be sure.
I would encourage anyone to read Holder’s entire speech and see what you take from it. Just do yourself a favor and take more than one sentence.
Full Text: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Remarks on Black History Month, ‘Nation of Cowards’
(Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice)
As Prepared for Delivery – February 18, 2009
Every year, in February, we attempt to recognize and to appreciate black history. It is a worthwhile endeavor for the contributions of African Americans to this great nation are numerous and significant. Even as we fight a war against terrorism, deal with the reality of electing an African American as our President for the first time and deal with the other significant issues of the day, the need to confront our racial past, and our racial present, and to understand the history of African people in this country, endures. One cannot truly understand America without understanding the historical experience of black people in this nation. Simply put, to get to the heart of this country one must examine its racial soul.
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. 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. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us. But we must do more- and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must – and will – lead the nation to the “new birth of freedom” so long ago promised by our greatest President. This is our duty and our solemn obligation.
