Posted by
Objection to Objectivity on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 10:12:58 PM
"When it comes to the issue of race... ...America has always been... ...and I think still is... ...a nation of cowards." So sayeth the great race redeemer, Mr. Eric Holder. The problem is, according to Mr. Holder, Americans are cowardly and timid when the topic of race comes up. We haven't had a direct conversation about race with people of other races, and thus we are all hidden racists in some form or another. We are all quick to jump to conclusions and to shut out potential friendships because we don't care to understand the complexities of someone walking in another shade of skin color.
But Mr. Holder misses the point: Americans don't talk, they act. There are more minorities in local, state, and federal government then ever before in this nation's history. There are more interracial couples in this country then ever before in history. There are so many mixed couples, and children of mixed couples, that demographers foresee a fast-approaching time (maybe 20-30 years out) where Americans will form a race all to their own: American. This is because the defining characteristics of race: skin color, eye color, hair type, will be so muddled in our blessed mixed children that there can be no word to define someone who is 1/8th black, 3/4 white and 1/8th japanese. Perhaps there will always be some form of white supremist groups out there, but then, there will also always be the Nation of Islam, which is a pretty intolerant group in its own right.
And just because these groups lead a a highly marginalized existence in America does not mean that the rest of us lead a "cowardly" life when it comes to race, Mr. Holder. It just means that this is a freedom-loving nation, and so we reluctantly allow groups like the aforementioned to survive because it is their misguided right to do so under the Constitution. Life and liberty are our founding principals (and so to is the pursuit of happiness, although now I believe it has been amended to just happiness) after all.
And it is Mr. Holder's right to speak his mind, as well. But I just wonder about where Mr. Holder lives in the DMV (District, Maryland and Virginia). Does he live in upper PG county? In that case, is he a coward because he won't move to a more "white" neighborhood? Does he live in Georgetown? Perhaps then he is anti-black, his own race, because you do not see too many minorities living over there. Does he live in Langley Park or south Arlington? If not, why? Is it because he is secretly against living in a hispanic-dominated neighborhood? These are absurd questions, to be sure, but then again, absurdity seems to follow absurd propositions.