I never did get around to adequately dismissing Attorney
General Eric Holder's claim that Americans are cowards for
not discussing race. Here is part of what Holder said on
Wednesday before Justice Department employees
"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," 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."
"It is an issue we have never been at ease with and, given
our nation's history, this is in some ways understandable,"
Holder said. "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."
Vanderbilt Torch writer Mike Warren rightly takes issue
with Eric Holder's assertion that we people are afraid of
discussing race, primarily because, well - we discuss it
all the time
"At a university, where discussion is a critical tool for
learning, I think it's good to at least talk about these
things. But the conversation is stitled, predictable, and
really not too free. I am pretty outspoken about several
issues in class, but I don't exactly rattle off the numbers
on the rise in black crime and its correlation with the
rise in black single motherhood without being extremely
measured.
The point is that we talk about race all the time; some
professors believe it informs a lot more than it probably
does. What MacDonald notes and what Holder really means is
that we need to have a discussion about expanding
entitlement programs to racial minorities (and whites, too,
while we're at it!)."
Of course, Mike is still at Vanderbilt, and I haven't been
in a Vanderbilt classroom in a nearly a decade. However, I
do recall no shortage of discussions of race in the
pertinent class setting (I do go on record hoping race
never comes up in, say, calculus). If there is a problem to
be addressed, it is certainly not a lack of discussion.
Indeed, let us address the real problem. I say we need to
stop being cowards in discussing Eric Holder's comments.
Let us move toward a more relevant discussion, and dissect
the difference between what Holder said and what he meant.
Because, quite frankly, if you take his words at face value
in light of current events and the general realm of reality
we all inhabit, they do not mean much of anything at all.
Let us begin discussing what a "frank discussion" actually
means. He isn't talking about "talk". If you don't think we
talk race, or talked race during the latest and longest
presidential campaign in history, I cannot help you. If
that is Holder's true opinion, the threshold for racial
cowardice is simply too low, and we as a country will never
rise above it. Certainly, if that is what he meant, talk is
cheap, which is why I'd generally be for it over widening
the trap door under urban black individualism by passing
more entitlement programs.
And that is just it - this was a clarion call for more race
pandering, not a broader race discussion. We already have
race discussion, but when it is "frank", it just does not
seem to be well-received. Certainly, Eric Holder remembers
what happened to Bill Cosby when he dared mention the real
problems in minority communities. Unlike a century ago,
white oppression can no longer be deemed the cause for
black poverty. Growing single motherhood, higher male
incarceration rates, and the growing masses of ignorant,
uneducated young people are the plague of urban America.
Indeed, the only way we can truly address the root causes
of this ongoing urban societal disaster flick is by getting
to frank discussions that move past race. The
aforementioned problems began to accelerate after World War
II, and have gotten even worse as racial issues have been
materially addressed. In fact, the urban areas that have
seen the most societal breakdown along with the surrounding
white suburbs are the populations who voted overwhelmingly
for Barack Obama and propelled the first black president
into the White House.
Something is certainly amiss with our black urban
populations, but it is not a frank discussion about race
that we need. We need something more substantive than that.
----------------------------------------------------
Nathan Moore is a rare breed - a conservative thinker,
author and criminal defense attorney. He lives in
Nashville, Tennessee, and co-authors the political blog
MooreThoughts.com (http://www.moorethoughts.com ) with his
wife, and maintains his own criminal defense blog, the
Moore Law Blog (http://www.moorelawblog.com).
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