Of Course Holder is Right: We are Forced to be Cowards on Race

Eric Holder, the first black attorney general under the first brown President, Barack Obama, (he is “brown”, not black, he had a black father and white mother, see I am not a coward on race just for saying that)  is saying that we (whoever “we” is-are) are cowards when it comes to talking about race.  (My nephew, almost three years old, whom I adore is “brown” as well.  I don’t think of him as a race anyway; he is a little boy whom I love.)  I am skeptical of Holder, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt.  If the purpose of his statement was to create a true politically incorrect dialogue of racial issues, then his statement is a good thing.  Otherwise, it is pointless and just continues the problem. 

Our wonderful country has the original sin of slavery and racism and segregation.  There is no doubt about that.  However, name me a single person that is alive today that was a slave owner or a slave himself.  (Slavery ended in this country almost 150 years ago.)  In this country, we are slowing moving toward equality of opportunity (to succeed or fail) which is the premise of this country.  However, affirmative action, which we have had in this country for a while, is nothing more than reverse discrimination.  It tells minorities that they have to be given an artificial edge in jobs and contracts because they could not succeed themselves in a level playing field.  This is simply not fair or equitable.  Think of how absurd a quota system or affirmative action would be in sports.  If this were the case, the Pittsburgh Pirates (yes, I am a fan) would have been in the World Series more recently than 30 years ago. 

While we are talking about this, Mr. Attorney General, let’s talk about African-Americans.  I refuse to use this terminology.  You are either an American or an African.  You cannot be both.  This type of terminology only serves to divide us on racial lines. 

One other thing which causes problems on race is the “racewarlords” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton who want to bring a racial angle into every stress or strife.  Sometimes there is, sometimes there is not.  Bringing race into everything is just like Chicken Little saying “The sky is falling.”  When real racism or bigotry comes in, you cannot tell the difference because of these people. 

Mr. Attorney General, if you are interested in starting a true, full, public dialogue about racial issues, and make it less politically correct, I then applaud you.  I will be watching you to see your actions and your words.