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Eric Holder Calls US a 'Nation of Cowards'
By Tommy Christopher
Feb 19th 2009 12:01AM

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is causing quite a ruckus on the interweb tonight for remarks that he made to his 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," Holder said. "We, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial."
Oh,Eric, I beg to differ.

I expect reaction to these remarks to fall into one of two camps:

1. "How dare that uppity so-and-so call us cowards?!?"

2. "Well, his choice of words was poor, but I agree with his larger point.

You can mark me up for column 3.

Since Barack Obama entered the presidential race, there has been no shortage of "brave" Americans willing to talk about race. Geraldine Ferraro, for instance. PUMA superhero Harriet Christian, for instance. The six jillion people who wrote "Is America ready for a black president?" articles, for instance. Every pollster, for instance. Your boss, for instance.

It seems like discussions of race are A-OK if you're talking about getting over it. But see what happens the minute you try to get people to take responsibility for racism. For participating in it, allowing it, or simply failing to recognize it when they see it.