I haven’t read the whole speech, just some press reports but I find Eric Holder’s comments on race both hackneyed and reprehensible. He says that America is “essentially a nation of cowards” because it doesn’t talk about race enough.
First, I think this is nonsense as we talk about race a great, great, great deal in this country. Endless courses in colleges and universities, chapters in high school textbooks, movies, documentaries, after-school-specials and so on are devoted to discussing race. We even have something called “Black History Month” — the occasion for Holder’s remarks to begin with — when America is supposed to spend a month talking about the black experience.
Second, to the extent we don’t talk about race in this country the primary reason is that liberals and racial activists have an annoying habit of attacking anyone who doesn’t read from a liberal script “racists” or, if they’re lucky, “insensitive.”
Thus “cowardice” is defined as refusal to do as you’re told when that would in fact be the cowardly thing to do.