Holder Gives Speech Marking Black History Month
The Caucus — In a speech marking Black History Month , Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday labeled the United States “essentially a nation of cowards” when it comes to race relations. Mr. Holder, the first black attorney general, told Justice Department employees that “this nation has still not come to grips with its racial past” and suggested Black History Month could be used to spark more candid discussion of racial issues. “This will be, at first, a process that is both awkward and painful, but the rewards are, I believe, potentially great,” Mr. Holder said. “The alternative ...

Holder Speech Cont'd
The Corner on National Review Online — ... ] The full text is here: Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. Though race related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race. It is an issue we have never been at ease with and given our nation s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we ...

Holder: America is a ‘nation of cowards’ on racial matters.
Think Progress — ... Today, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the Justice Department in honor of Black History Month. As the first African-American leading the DOJ, he called for a national dialogue on race — something the United States has generally avoided: ...

“A Nation Of Cowards”?
Discriminations — ... In longwinded remarks at the Department of Justice commemorating Black History Month, Attorney General Eric Holder called us “essentially a nation of cowards” because “we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race.” ...

Americans are Cowards
PoliGazette — ... “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been, and we, I believe, continue to be, in too many ways, a nation of cowards,” Holder said in remarks to his staff in honor of Black History Month. His comments appear on a transcript provided by the Justice Department. ...

Megyn Kelly: ‘Addressing Racial Ills…Strikes Fear Down The Spines Of Many Conservatives’
Think Progress — ... .” He said that the Department has “a special responsibility,” and that as long as he is Attorney General, the Department “must — and will — lead the nation to the ‘new birth of freedom’ so long ago promised by our greatest President.” ...

Rush: I’m No Coward On Race, I Stood Up To Media’s ‘Slavish Coverage Of Black Quarterbacks’
Think Progress — ... By citing the McNabb episode as a “brave” moment in the history of race-relations, Limbaugh actually reaffirmed Holder’s point. As Holder explained yesterday, discussions surrounding race and public policy in American society ought to be “nuanced, principled and spirited.” But too often, we leave the conversation to “ ...

Eric Holder Thinks Barack Obama Is Kidding Himself
MoJo Blog Posts: mojo — I'm glad Dayo Olopade wrote about Eric Holder's speech to his staff at the Department of Justice. Holder tackles race in America in a remarkably straight-forward and clear-eyed way. Dayo calls it "confrontational," and indeed, it's hard to read sentences like these -- "in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards" -- without thinking that perhaps Eric Holder has been holding something inside that he's wanted to yell at the top of his lungs for a long time. These lines from Holder -- "On Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, ...

Gates of Vienna News Feed 2/20/2009
Gates of Vienna — ... Attorney General Holder’s Speech on Race: “Nation of Cowards” Every year, in February, we attempt to recognize and to appreciate black history. It is a worthwhile endeavor for the contributions of African Americans to this great nation are numerous and significant. Even as we fight a war against terrorism, deal with the reality of electing an African American as our President for the first time and deal with the other significant issues of the day, the need to confront our racial past, and our racial present, ...

No Place Nowadays for Eric Holder’s ‘Nation of Cowards’ Rant
Pajamas Media — Latter-day Pharisees like the attorney general presume to lecture us about race while doing nothing to address real problems affecting ordinary Americans. [image]“Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion, and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about things racial.” – Eric Holder ...

Weekend Opinionator: A Nation of Cowards, Stimulus-Wielding Chimps and Hip-Hop Republicans
The Opinionator — Is it morning in post-racial America? According to Attorney General Eric Holder, not even close : “In things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,” he told his Justice Department employees in remarks prepared to honor Black History Month on Wednesday. Well, I for one can’t wait for his ...

A Nation Of Cowards
JustOneMinute — ... to Attorney General Holder's announcement that we are a nation of cowards on the topic of race.  Let me add this - if Holder thinks we are a nation of cowards he can hold himself forth as Exhibit A.  Even allowing that his assigned topic was Black History Month, it is hard to imagine a more gutless and platitudinous speech.  Here is a sample profile in courage:"For too long we have been too willing to segregate the study of black history".  ...

Meat, Bone, Hope, Courage
The American Scene — There’s a grisly education in the striking contrast between Eric Holder’s outrage-of-the-week announcement that Americans are “a nation of cowards” and Travis the Chimp’s primal display of animal courage. I suggest why over at The American Spectator today, but the contrast haunted me through the night and there’s a point I want to sharpen. While Holder tried to put some meat on the bones of hope, Travis the chimp tore meat away from bone — in an obviously much more literal way that luridly deepened our already intense feeling, this decade, of a vulnerability beyond poetic consolation. The grim truth confronts, ...

A Nation of Cowards, Cont.
Weekly Standard Blog — ... Americans in the next to the last paragraph of the speech as examples, and many of them are very impressive men and women -- not a single military person. Now, one of the great things that African Americans have done in U.S. history, despite being discriminated against throughout, until very nearly the last couple of decades, is serve this country with great distinction in war. Not a single African American military hero is cited by Eric Holder Here's the list of the African Americans Holder acknowledged in his speech: ...

Reading and misreading Eric Holder’s call to discuss race
pandagon.net - we are the public option — ... , no doubt reflecting some of the thinking on the right as they went breathless over this part of Holder’s statement. ...

Non-Sequiturs: The Natural Enemy Of Inequality
pandagon.net - we are the public option — by Jesse Taylor Tara Wall, deputy editor of the Washington Times (and BLACK), is taking on Eric Holder’s “coward” commentary by forthrightly bringing up a whole series of largely unrelated things and being really mendacious about it.  Kind of like how I got free drinks at the bar by convincing the bartender that Pol Pot wore briefs.  Long story, I’ll tell you about it sometime.  One dictionary definition of coward is “lacking courage.” Stinging words for a country at war, where white and black soldiers are shedding the same color blood. Are they cowards? ...

Bozell Column: Eric Holder's No Healer
NewsBusters.org - Exposing Liberal Media Bias — We’ve endured two years of endless journalistic jawboning about Barack Obama, the great racial healer who would bind us together, the man who would get everyone singing on a sun-soaked hilltop with a bottle of Coke and a smile. So now that he’s in, what have he got? We have Obama’s attorney general Eric Holder telling us how Americans remain "voluntarily socially segregated," and that while we have the foolish pride to think of the United States as an ethnic melting pot, we have always been and continue to be a "nation of cowards." Whether you support him politically or not, Obama’s election could not help but cause Americans to grow ...

‘Structural Inequality,’ ‘Barriers’ to Equality, and the (Un)teachable Moment
Pajamas Media — Obama and Gates articulate a radical view of "equality" that progresses way beyond the simple absence of racism. [image] Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder rapped America’s knuckles for being “ a nation of cowards ” because we “simply do not talk enough with each other about race.” Now, after the Gates-Crowley affair and the president’s foot-in-mouth “acting stupidly” remark created what the president himself called “a teachable moment,” we don’t know who is the teacher, who are the students, and what is the lesson. Those like ...

Eric Holder vs. "A Nation of Cowards"
Gates of Vienna — Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General, says more than his prayers. Based on his record to date, he is a partisan activist of the kind he deplored during his confirmation hearings. His reign at the Department of Justice is “all politics, all the time”. Let’s start with the little things, like his own history in the Clinton administration. That should have been a warning, but since the Democrats rule the Senate, his previous conduct was evidently commendable. Here is the Judiciary Committee fawning during the confirmation hearings: It was Holder who negotiated the partisan deal worked out for Marc Rich’s pardon on the eve of ...