A nation of cowards

[Occhidiangela]

Freakin' amateurs.

Down here in South Texas, the dead still vote. It's a tradition passed down from zombie to son.

@ jester:

Your appeal to special victim status is noted, yet you now play bait and switch, or perhaps a goal post move, pick your rhetorical term to suit, attempting to clothe it by juxtaposition, as a matter of race.

Do you see what you did there?

Was it intentional?

It seems pretty standard to me, and I largely agree, although not with some of the more wingding assertions about fifth columns and whatnot. To talk about "cowards" is a handy catchphrase, but the reality is about power and history: who has had it, who still does have it, and how do we use it to further equality rather than destroy it. It is not about every single person being tarred with exactly the same brush, but about the lingering stench of racism that pervades the corridors of power.

However, I don't think Eric Holder would particularly disagree with that, though he would no doubt phrase it differently. He was speaking for Black History Month, but his comments were general ones to the issue of race. I doubt he would disagree that a similar dialogue should take place for all minorities, or for gender, or on sexuality. Nor would he disagree that MLK, Harriet Tubman, or any other smattering of civil rights activists would be unfairly tarred as "cowards". Indeed, he even singles those same people out for praise in his own speech, making me somewhat wonder if that author had actually heard or read the speech.

This is also what, in so many words, those same activists said in their time, challenging America to confront and overcome the problems of race. I take semantic issue with the article on one point, though: it is the nation collectively, and not every individual person, that needs a serious discussion. That article seems to use "collectively" to mean "every single person", whereas I see it as the organic whole.

As to Holder's remarks, I think he is at least partly right: some people won't speak plainly and honestly about race, or mayhap we might consider a more applicable term: clan or group identity.

Occhi