Coward!

So Eric Holder thinks that we are cowards here in A-merry-ca because we don't talk openly about race. (The guy obviously doesn't ever come to this site) And of course every red blooded white A-merry-can took offense; some more than others. If you didn't happen to catch the shout fest between Pat Buchanan and Michael Eric Dyson on "Hardball" tonight you missed a real treat. For a moment there I thought Pat was going to drop the "N" word, I sure know he was thinking it. (*How many of you Negroes can look at a white person and just tell when he/she wants to call you the"N" word? Raise your hands.*) Say what you want about Pat, at least he seems to be pretty honest about his feelings on race. Now there is a guy I could start a dialogue with. Eric Holder was not talking about the Pat Buchanans of the world. He knows just how he feels about black folks, and he doesn't seem to have any illusions about it. I like that.

Now Lorie Byrd, on the other hand, not so much.

See Lorie is your typical misguided conservative. I will try not to be too hard on her because she is a Tigers fan like moi. Still, her recent post on Wizbang about Holder's comments was sad but not surprising. She thinks individual black people achieving in business and politics is a fair measuring stick of how far A-merry-ca has come on matters of race. As if every time she sees a black woman she sees Condi or Oprah, and every time she sees a black man she sees Obama or Will. The anecdote about her daughter and her black playmate....well here, read for yourself:

"Here's the Associated Press report:

Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, said Wednesday the United States was "a nation of cowards" on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues. In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder said.
Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."
Maybe one day we will know Americans are no longer cowards on race if they pass a law to protect the civil rights of minorities.

Or a black woman becomes one of the most successful businesswomen in America.
Or if a black man or woman can serve as secretary of state.
Or if one day they elect a black American to the highest office in the land.
Or if a black man can serve as attorney general, Eric Holder.

Of course all those things have happened already. But Holder is talking not so much about concrete progress made by minorities, but about how Americans discuss race and how they choose to associate in their private lives. Make of that what you will, but when someone in the government starts worrying about who I choose as my friends, I get worried that they are way deeper in my business than I care for them to be.

Update: It just occurred to me that while I was writing this post my daughter was in her room playing with the little girl who lives across the street -- who just happens to be black. The fact that it did not even occur to me until now, in my opinion, is more indicative of progress. Would you prefer to live in a country where you associated with those of other races without even thinking about it, or a country in which race was always on your mind and discussed at every opportunity. I know which America I choose and it is quite apparent which one Attorney General Holder would prefer. I guess in his book that makes me a coward.
Update II: Michelle Malkin talks about real race cowards.

Funny. When I think of racial cowards, I think of Barack Obama at Jeremiah Wright's church, sitting there week after week, year after year, saying nothing about the separatist demagoguery echoing from the pulpit to the pews.

When I think of racial cowards, I think of all the navel-gazers who fret about poisonous racial dialogue, but say nothing about "My President Is Black" bigotry...
...Holder doesn't want an honest dialogue about race. In the Age of Obama, "talking enough with each other about race" means the rest of us shutting up while being subjected to lectures about our insensitivity and insufficient integration on the weekends.Allahpundit points out that Obama could have talked more about race during the campaign if he wanted to, but the Jeremiah Wright made that hard to do.

I didn't think about this when I first posted, but what does it say about Democrats/liberals who won't allow black Americans to identify themselves as conservatives or Republicans without calling them derogatory names? I guess it could be considered cowardice that so many liberals are afraid of and threatened by black conservatives who flee the liberal Democrat plantation."

Hmmm, did she write "black conservatives who flee the liberal Democrat plantation"? Nice try Lorie, but the last time I checked; the big house was still a part of the plantation.

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