Pandering Progressives:Is AG Holder Right about Racism?

A Nation of Cowards

Attorney General Eric Holder said the United States is "a nation of cowards" when it comes to race relations. In one sense, he is absolutely right. Many whites, from university administrators and professors, schoolteachers to employers and public officials accept behavior from black people that they wouldn't begin to accept from whites. For example, some of the nation's most elite universities, such as Vanderbilt, Stanford University and the University of California, have yielded to black student demands for separate graduation ceremonies and separate "celebratory events." Universities such as Stanford, Cornell, MIT, and Cal Berkeley have, or have had, segregated dorms. If white students demanded whites-only graduation ceremonies or whites-only dorms, administrators would have labeled their demands as intolerable racism. When black students demand the same thing, these administrators cowardly capitulate. Calling these university administrators cowards is the most flattering characterization of their behavior. They might actually be stupid enough to believe nonsense taught by their some of sociology and psychology professors that blacks can't be racists because they don't have power.

What about Holder's statement that America is "voluntarily segregated"? I say, so what. According to the census, in 2007, 4.6 percent of married blacks were married to a white; less than 1 percent of married whites were married to a black. While blacks are 13 percent of the population, they are 80 percent of professional basketball players and 65 percent of professional football players. Mere casual observance of audiences at ice hockey games or opera performances would reveal gross voluntary segregation. What would Holder propose the U.S. Justice Department do about these and other instances of voluntary segregation?

Attorney General Holder's flawed thinking is widespread whereby people think that an activity that is not racially integrated is therefore segregated. Blacks are about 60 percent of the Washington, D.C. population. At the Reagan National Airport, which serves D.C., nowhere near 60 percent of the airport's water fountain users are black; I'd guess blacks are never more than 5 percent of users. The population statistics of states such as South Dakota, Iowa, Maine, Montana and Vermont show that not even 1 percent of their populations are black. Does that mean Reagan National Airport water fountains and South Dakota, Iowa, Maine, Montana and Vermont are racially segregated? If Holder does anything about "voluntary segregation" at the state level I hope it's not court-ordered busing; I'm not wild about their winters. Just because some activity is not racially integrated does not mean that it is racially segregated.

The bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is over and it is won. At one time black Americans didn't share the constitutional guarantees shared by whites; today we do. That does not mean that there are not major problems that confront a large segment of the black community, but they are not civil rights problems nor can they be solved through a "conversation on race." Black illegitimacy stands at 70 percent; nearly 50 percent of black students drop out of high school; and only 30 percent of black youngsters reside in two-parent families. In 2005, while 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nation's homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer. Such pathology, I think much of it precipitated by family breakdown, is entirely new among blacks. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 percent; in 1950, only 18 percent of black households were female-headed compared with today's 70 percent. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.

If black people continue to accept the corrupt blame game agenda of liberal whites, black politicians and assorted hustlers, as opposed to accepting personal responsibility, the future for many black Americans will remain bleak.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

The bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is over and it is won. At one time black Americans didn't share the constitutional guarantees shared by whites; today we do. That does not mean that there are not major problems that confront a large segment of the black community, but they are not civil rights problems nor can they be solved through a "conversation on race." Black illegitimacy stands at 70 percent; nearly 50 percent of black students drop out of high school; and only 30 percent of black youngsters reside in two-parent families. In 2005, while 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nation's homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer. Such pathology, I think much of it precipitated by family breakdown, is entirely new among blacks. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 percent; in 1950, only 18 percent of black households were female-headed compared with today's 70 percent. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks

Well, I'm glad you pulled it back onto the actual subject of the topic.

Interesting essay. And I can't find one statement that I disagree with except the I don't think Holder was necessarily expressing the fact that he was blaming anyone about the fact that blacks and whites remain fairly segregated socially. I think he was just making what he believes to be a statement of fact

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I would agree had he not followed this:

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Given all that we as a nation went through during the civil rights struggle it is hard for me to accept that the result of those efforts was to create an America that is more prosperous, more positively race conscious and yet is voluntarily socially segregated.

Immediately with this:

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As a nation we should use Black History month as a means to deal with this continuing problem.

Admittedly Holder may have intended that last line to be in a general sense of discussing racism, but it didn't sound that way when he gave it or when you read it. But I'll give him benefit of the doubt as I can't know what his intent was without him elaborating on it.

I believe Williams point however, is 'voluntary segregation' is not a problem that needs to be anybody's concern. Voluntary is voluntary. There are real issues out there, however, that should be a concern for everybody not the least of which are those who are most hurt by them.

You took particular note of this point in Williams essay:

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The bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is over and it is won. At one time black Americans didn't share the constitutional guarantees shared by whites; today we do. That does not mean that there are not major problems that confront a large segment of the black community, but they are not civil rights problems nor can they be solved through a "conversation on race." Black illegitimacy stands at 70 percent; nearly 50 percent of black students drop out of high school; and only 30 percent of black youngsters reside in two-parent families. In 2005, while 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nation's homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer. Such pathology, I think much of it precipitated by family breakdown, is entirely new among blacks. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 percent; in 1950, only 18 percent of black households were female-headed compared with today's 70 percent. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.

And you responded with this most astute observation:

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I've wondered about this myself. I remember watching a documentary on the Montgomery bus boycott during the civil rights movement and being struck by the articulate and eloquent speech of the women who were interviewed - and they were, for the most part, maids- who were walking miles to and from work to protest sitting at the back of the bus.

And I asked myself, 'What's changed so much between now and then?' because I don't think if you spoke to a middle classed young woman of any race today you'd find very many as articulate and wellspoken as these women who were basically eighth grade educated menial laborers living in segregation.

From my observation, I'd say that opportunities are available, and those who put their back into it and work hard and take personal responsibility definitely can succeed, but there is still a level of distrust between blacks and whites, and as many social and cultural institutions are run by white people, that impacts negatively on the level of participation and cooperation of nonwhites. Whether this distrust is justified or not- the fact is it does exist.

I saw this very often in schools. On parent nights, many times, the parents of the black students would not come. I don't believe for a minute they cared less about the progress of their children- they wanted them to be educated and succeed, but I do think there may have been a level of discomfort in an environment in which they may have felt not known, or understood, in which they felt they'd be looked at as different or less able.

And I don't think this feeling of otherness or differentness can really be dissipated unless people DO desegregate socially.

One of my favorite activities at the last public school I taught at in the US was our Unity Dinner. It was always in February - and we had people of all races-students, parents, teachers, administrators, and any guest anyone wanted to bring, coming together - everyone brought a dish from their culture and we all ate dinner together, listened to poetry and music, danced-in other words got to know each other as something other than black or white or hispanic or asian.

I think these are the sort of activities, rather than mandated conversations on race, that will end up making any sort of difference in desegregating socially.

What changed, in my opinion, was overt government meddling that failed to recognize the virtues and institutions in the black community that strengthened and sustained it as it struggled to gain its rightful place in society. The government systematically went about destroying those institutions in the name of desegregation and, with the very programs intended to help, made the black father irrevelent and made the nuclear black family unnecessary and perhaps even undesirable. If you read some of the best works of Shelby Steele, Thomas Sowell, and others who have done in depth analysis of the real black history, most come to that same conclusion.

In my opinion two things need to happen to eradicate the last vestiges of racism in this country:

1. Both opportunistic whites and blacks need to be exposed for the scavengers they are and we should stop rewarding them for keeping black people as victims and therefore in need of rescue so that those presuming to be the 'saviors' will be kept in power.

2. All of us should swallow hard, take a deep breath, and vow to lose the hypersensitivity and political correctness yokes that requires that we treat black people differently from white people. How can anybody ever feel like 'one of the boys or girls' if he or she must be treated with kid gloves and forever remind that he or she is black and therefore different.

Let's not be cowards and talk about that.

All of this merely illustrates that, in his well-composed but very patronizing speech, AG Holder provided us all with an excellent example of the "cowardliness" of which he accused the Justice department employees he was addressing directly and the rest of us as well.

No mention of the growing pathologies within Black culture after the civil rights struggle was (deservedly) won, and how correcting that may be the central needed element of the new phase of our collective struggle.

Instead he gave his audience only the tired rationalizations for endless affirmative action for Blacks (but no one else), reminding us that we will have to continue things like Black History Month untill we all get it right - by his analysis.

2. All of us should swallow hard, take a deep breath, and vow to lose the hypersensitivity and political correctness yokes that requires that we treat black people differently from white people. How can anybody ever feel like 'one of the boys or girls' if he or she must be treated with kid gloves and forever remind that he or she is black and therefore different.

Let's not be cowards and talk about that.

Oh well. You're lucky that you've perhaps never been in a situation where it was an issue.

Trent Lott, Senate Majority Leader, for instance, was forced to resign his position for telling a 90-year-old colleague, Strom Thurmond on his birthday, that he would have made a great president. Because that 90-year-old colleague was running on a segregationist ticket four decades before, Lott's comment was branded racist.

That stupid dead chimpanzee cartoon--disgusting but not because it was racist--is another example. Because black people were once taunted as being 'jungle bunnies' and have been sometimes portrayed as 'ape like', the hypersensitive among us immediately branded the cartoon racist. Apparently the accusers don't see that THEIR making such a connection is in itself racist I guess.

I want to be able to treat black people exactly as I would treat anybody and not have to measure every word and nuance to avoid anything that might trigger an accusation of racist attitude or insensitivity. It is only when such freedom is allowed that racism has any chance to cease to exist.

His 1948 presidential campaign was launched to protest the national Democratic Party’s civil rights plank. His record filibuster in 1957 was an attempt to kill part of a civil rights bill. In the 1950s and 1960s, he condemned nearly all court rulings and congressional proposals that extended civil rights to African-Americans.

Thurmond once vowed that “there’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.”

But many black and white people credit Thurmond for changing his views on racial issues. He became the first Southern member of Congress to appoint a black person to his professional staff. He voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1982. And he was honored in 1995 by the presidents of historically black colleges and universities for his support of those schools.

“In most instances I am confident that we have more in common as Southerners than we have reason to oppose each other because of race,” Thurmond once told Ebony magazine. “Equality of opportunity for all is a goal upon which blacks and Southern whites can agree

georgeob1 wrote:

Instead he gave his audience only the tired rationalizations for endless affirmative action for Blacks (but no one else), reminding us that we will have to continue things like Black History Month untill we all get it right - by his analysis.

Why would you say this - that we will HAVE to continue things like Black History Month until we all get it right..?

That's the sort of comment or attitude that I think feeds into the atmosphere of distrust. Do you resent having black history month?
I actually always really enjoy it - to tell you the truth. Especially as a teacher. When I was in school learning history - there wasn't the emphasis on how blacks contributed to our country's history, so the first few years I was teaching it was as much a learning experience for me as it was for the students.
And really - how much does it affect anyone of any race who isn't in school?