A Nation of Cowards
".....in things racial, we have always been....a nation of cowards.... We...simply do not talk enough with each other about race."
Attorney General Eric Holder, Feb. 18, 2009
Does the AG mean that men like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright are too cowardly to speak up about race in this country? I do not think so----they seem to talk about little else!
Perhaps he meant that white people, like this blogger (white as the driven snow, though Nazi-types would deny that) don't talk enough about race? It is true that the Glazerbeam has not dealt much with racial issues-----until now. I proudly accept the AG's challenge to discuss race in America candidly, but I am not sure he would like what I have to say, if he even reads this blog.
Unlike Mr Holder, I contend that talk of race has had too great an impact on public affairs in this country, and here are some examples of what I mean:
Clarence Thomas. When the first black Supreme Court Justice retired in 1991, President George H W Bush appointed US Circuit Judge Thomas to succeed him. Although he was the only black person ever nominated to the Supreme Court by a Republican president, Thomas apparently believed the President's claim that his race had nothing to do with his selection.
Yet, at his confirmation hearing, he never tired of reminding senators of his humble origins in a dysfunctional black family in Pin Point, Georgia. He lambasted criticism of his nomination as a "high tech lynching," deliberately using this racially-charged term to discredit his opponents. Instead of holding him in contempt of the Senate, the Senate confirmed him.
O J Simpson. Despite overwhelming DNA evidence of his guilt in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman, Simpson was acquitted by a jury without even one white male member. (1) To this day, polls show that most black Americans believe Simpson was innocent. (2) He is only behind bars now because he subsequently committed other crimes in Las Vegas, where his race could not save him from justice. If he ever needed Johnny Cochran, he needed him at his Nevada trial.
Barack Obama must be one of the cowards that Holder was referring to, since he rarely mentioned race during his long presidential campaign, until the furor over Wright made him address the subject. But that is exactly where he differed from previous black presidential candidates like Jackson and Sharpton, which is why many whites voted for him!
Obama apparently believes that his partial-African heritage was an obstacle that he had to overcome in winning the Democratic presidential nomination, but the truth is that it was an enormous advantage. As the only African-American in a field of nine candidates, he garnered the lion's share of the black vote in every primary and caucus, while the other candidates scrambled for a share of the white vote. This was crucially important in winning southern primaries, where black voters today are often a majority of the Democratic base. In addition, white liberals could manifest their racial liberalism by voting for an African-American candidate more than by backing a white contender who was merely supportive of black aspirations. In this age of "identity politics", Obama was the "real deal."
As for Eric Holder, I cannot prove that his race was a major factor in his impressive legal career, which included important positions in the Clinton Justice Department, which then paved the way for his appointment as Attorney General. But it probably helped.
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(1) The prosecution agreed to move the trial from the district where the crimes where committed to Central Los Angeles, where more blacks would be in the jury pool. Cochran succeeded in eliminating all white males from the final panel, then using the racism of Detective Furman to persuade the jurors that Simpson was framed.
(2) Simpson is an ironic beneficiary of black solidarity, since he preferred the company of whites. Not only did he marry a white woman (as his second wife), but he allowed an unemployed white guy to share his home, even though there were plenty of black losers in LA who would have gladly accepted his hospitality.
Attorney General Eric Holder, Feb. 18, 2009
Does the AG mean that men like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright are too cowardly to speak up about race in this country? I do not think so----they seem to talk about little else!
Perhaps he meant that white people, like this blogger (white as the driven snow, though Nazi-types would deny that) don't talk enough about race? It is true that the Glazerbeam has not dealt much with racial issues-----until now. I proudly accept the AG's challenge to discuss race in America candidly, but I am not sure he would like what I have to say, if he even reads this blog.
Unlike Mr Holder, I contend that talk of race has had too great an impact on public affairs in this country, and here are some examples of what I mean:
Clarence Thomas. When the first black Supreme Court Justice retired in 1991, President George H W Bush appointed US Circuit Judge Thomas to succeed him. Although he was the only black person ever nominated to the Supreme Court by a Republican president, Thomas apparently believed the President's claim that his race had nothing to do with his selection.
Yet, at his confirmation hearing, he never tired of reminding senators of his humble origins in a dysfunctional black family in Pin Point, Georgia. He lambasted criticism of his nomination as a "high tech lynching," deliberately using this racially-charged term to discredit his opponents. Instead of holding him in contempt of the Senate, the Senate confirmed him.
O J Simpson. Despite overwhelming DNA evidence of his guilt in the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman, Simpson was acquitted by a jury without even one white male member. (1) To this day, polls show that most black Americans believe Simpson was innocent. (2) He is only behind bars now because he subsequently committed other crimes in Las Vegas, where his race could not save him from justice. If he ever needed Johnny Cochran, he needed him at his Nevada trial.
Barack Obama must be one of the cowards that Holder was referring to, since he rarely mentioned race during his long presidential campaign, until the furor over Wright made him address the subject. But that is exactly where he differed from previous black presidential candidates like Jackson and Sharpton, which is why many whites voted for him!
Obama apparently believes that his partial-African heritage was an obstacle that he had to overcome in winning the Democratic presidential nomination, but the truth is that it was an enormous advantage. As the only African-American in a field of nine candidates, he garnered the lion's share of the black vote in every primary and caucus, while the other candidates scrambled for a share of the white vote. This was crucially important in winning southern primaries, where black voters today are often a majority of the Democratic base. In addition, white liberals could manifest their racial liberalism by voting for an African-American candidate more than by backing a white contender who was merely supportive of black aspirations. In this age of "identity politics", Obama was the "real deal."
As for Eric Holder, I cannot prove that his race was a major factor in his impressive legal career, which included important positions in the Clinton Justice Department, which then paved the way for his appointment as Attorney General. But it probably helped.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) The prosecution agreed to move the trial from the district where the crimes where committed to Central Los Angeles, where more blacks would be in the jury pool. Cochran succeeded in eliminating all white males from the final panel, then using the racism of Detective Furman to persuade the jurors that Simpson was framed.
(2) Simpson is an ironic beneficiary of black solidarity, since he preferred the company of whites. Not only did he marry a white woman (as his second wife), but he allowed an unemployed white guy to share his home, even though there were plenty of black losers in LA who would have gladly accepted his hospitality.
posted by Gerald S Glazer at 9:10 AM
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