Heather Mac Donald is one of several people taking up Eric Holder on his suggestion of a frank discussion on race issues. Can't excerpt this one. Go.
Peter Wehner says Holder's statement is surreal.
Here's Jonah
Holder says we are “a nation of cowards†because we’re unwilling to discuss race to his satisfaction. Some might say that’s an ironic diagnosis given that Holder is the first black attorney general, appointed by the first black president of the United States.Nonetheless, Holder thinks the answer to our racial problems is for more people of different colors to talk about how race defines them. He suggests using the “artificial device†of Black History Month “to generate discussion that should come more naturally†but doesn’t.
Well, in the spirit of full and frank discussion, let me say I have some problems with Holder’s analysis.
The first thing worth pointing out is that Holder is wrong. America talks about race incessantly, in classrooms, lecture halls, movies, op-ed pages, books, magazines, talk shows, just about every third PBS documentary by my count, blogs, diversity training sessions and, yes, even mandatory Black History Month events.
In fairness, Holder seems vaguely aware of this. The hitch is that he thinks this isn’t nearly enough racial argy-bargy. We’ve got to work the balm of racial dialogue deep into the muscle and sinew of the body politic.
My biggest objection to Holder’s speech is that it reveals how enthralled to a cliché he is. Look, despite the bold tone of his remarks, this is just a terribly hackneyed idea. People have been calling for a national dialogue for years. Twelve years ago, Bill Clinton even proclaimed a whole year would be dedicated to a national conversation on race.
Assuming Holder is serious, who says more talk would make things better? Is there some social science to back up this talking point posing as wisdom?
And Linda Chavez thinks tackling the tough issues facing blacks in America would have allowed Holder to show a little courage himself.
First of all, the idea of our first African-American attorney general serving in the administration of our first African-American president, choosing to say that America is a “nation of cowards†on the issue of race is absurd to the point of satire. Race may well be the original sin of American history but in schools all across this country this month, white, Hispanic and Asian children are learning about Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks. Racism may still exist but it lingers on the margins of our society and anyone who expresses any remark which can even be remotely accused of such prejudice is subjected to the sort of opprobrium that means permanent exile from positions of influence in politics, the media or even the arts.And it was, after all, a clear majority of those “cowards†who elected Barack Obama president of the United States. While the endless round of self-congratulation on the part of so many Americans for doing this may be tiresome, it is nonetheless a fact that a nation that once enshrined black slavery in its Constitution and still practiced Jim Crow segregation only a half century now is led by a black man. While one could have said in the past few decades at times that the lowering of racial barriers was more a matter of law than anything else, after last November you can’t say that anymore. And for Holder, of all people, to make that argument from his own powerful perch atop the Justice Department is particularly egregious.
The racial grievance industry has to know their central premise is wearing thin with Obama sitting in the White House. Their message (and Holder is certainly one voice for it) is that white America is not off the hook, and that there's still plenty of groveling to do.
UPDATE 2/19: Michael Ledeen: "We Are All Cowards Now"
Posted by dan at February 19, 2009 11:51 PM