Obama's Attorney General calls Americans Cowards

[Oscar Namechange]

Obama's attorney general claims US is 'voluntarily segregated' - Telegraph

Obama's attorney general claims US is 'voluntarily segregated'

Barack Obama's attorney general Eric Holder has branded the United States a "nation of cowards" who are "voluntarily socially segregated" along race lines.



By Alex Spillius in Washington

Last Updated: 11:37PM GMT 19 Feb 2009

Attorney general Eric Holder claims the US is 'voluntarily socially segregated' along race lines Photo: AP

Mr Holder, the first African American to hold the post of top justice official, said that although the US was integrated in the workplace, its people spent their weekends and private lives in "race-protected cocoons".

"Saturdays and Sundays, America in the year 2009 does not in some ways differ significantly from the country that existed almost 50 years ago. This is truly sad," said Mr Holder

Speaking to members of his department to mark Black History Month, an annual national celebration of African American achievement, he added: "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, essentially a nation of cowards," he added.

His comments took some of the sheen off the celebratory mood America has felt since electing its first black president in November.

But Mr Holder was echoing a plea President Barack Obama made to the nation during his campaign last year to break a "racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years".

The president, the son of Kenyan and a white Kansan, has described himself as "post-racial", but Mr Holder clearly thought the nation has a long way to go before it meets that goal.

Mr Holder, 57, who was born in New York to parents hailing from Barbados, cited the president's words and urged his colleagues to loosen their inhibitions about discussing race.

"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," he said.

Speaking afterwards to reporters, he added: "If we're going to ever make progress, we're going to have to have the guts, we have to have the determination, to be honest with each other. It also means we have to be able to accept criticism where that is justified."

Acknowledging that Mr Obama's election made the US "fundamentally different", he lamented the fact that the nation "still had not come to grips with its racial past, nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way, the diverse future it is fated to have".

Andrew Grant-Thomas, Deputy Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University, praised Mr Holder's general message but said the wording of the speech may alienate some.

"He's right on the substance, but that's probably not the most politic way of saying it. I'm certain there are people who will hear him and say, 'That's obnoxious'," he said, adding that what was missing from Mr Holder's speech were specific examples of what painful subjects need to be addressed.

Hilary Shelton, vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called the speech "constructively provocative".

"Nobody wants to be considered a coward. We've learned to get along by exclusion and silence. We need to talk about it. People need to feel comfortable saying the wrong things," he said.

[Oscar Namechange]

Disgusting

[BTS]

Yah call me a coward for not raising my kids in "the hood" with all the gang bangers if you like.



But I will tell you right now one of the best neighbors i EVER had was black and lived next door to me. Was he a coward?

I think not, he was brave.



He got it wrong but then expect to hear much more in the coming days where Obama's henchmen get it wrong...

I'll be damned if I am going to be told who I hang around with on Saturday and Sunday............Thank You

[spot]

He was perhaps echoing Linda Ellerbee's phrase from her Open Letter To Nelson Mandela.We have this little problem here in America. It's called racism. Or, put another way, hatred.

We say this is the land of the free. Free and equal. But those are just words and words are just symbols and a symbol is not the act - the deed. Our racism used to be based on ignorance, but now we can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse. Too bad. The prejudice of ignorance can be corrected. Or so we thought.

Our prejudice, the prejudice of 1990, seems to be based on greed. And envy. And cowardice. Sometimes it seems we've turned into a nation of cowards. We have black people hating Koreans. We have Hispanic people hating Vietnamese. And, of course, we have white people hating everybody.

Even the young are afflicted with this disease, which is so sad, because we always expect, hope, that the young will be better than we were. Racism on the campus is a big issue here this summer. So much so that the U.S. Department of Education plans a summer conference "to develop a national agenda to fight racial discrimination on campus." A national agenda? Something like that needs to come from higher up - and lower down.

We have a president who says he's against racism, and I believe him. But those, too, are just words. We have a civil rights bill in Congress right now. The president pledged to "leave no stone unturned" in advancing this nation's civil rights agenda, but the president says he won't sign that civil rights bill unless it's changed. Weakened, he means.

In New York City, we have racial tension hitting 92 on the scare meter. But we have a mayor who says, more or less, "I hope New Yorkers can rise above this and be better to one another." I hope, too, but from the mayor I expect more than hope or words. I expect action. And I'm not getting it. Not where racism is concerned. Not from my president. Not from my mayor. And not, as bad fortune would have it, from too many other so-called leaders. All I get, all we get, is words. And more words.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER June 11, 1990

[Oscar Namechange]

BTS;1140303 wrote: Yah call me a coward for not raising my kids in "the hood" with all the gang bangers if you like.



But I will tell you right now one of the best neighbors i EVER had was black and lived next door to me. Was he a coward?

I think not, he was brave.



He got it wrong but then expect to hear much more in the coming days where Obama's henchmen get it wrong...

I'll be damned if I am going to be told who I hang around with on Saturday and Sunday............Thank You


My first reaction to this was anger. I think he is insulting blacks as well as white Americans. It is exactly this kind of shyte that incites racism.

I'm sure if this was a British politian, there would be immediate calls for his resignation.

[Peg]

Are we supposed to believe America is the only country with racism?

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Peg;1140398 wrote: Are we supposed to believe America is the only country with racism? Oh come on Peg..... America racist???? Why would you have a black President in the Whitehouse if America was racist? :wah: I think the guy's an idiot for saying it.

[spot]

Peg;1140398 wrote: Are we supposed to believe America is the only country with racism?


Linda Ellerbee's open letter is addressed to Nelson Mandela. Isn't that a rather large clue that racism extends beyond American borders?

Eric Holder was addressing the staff of his own Department, you'd expect him to focus on America's problem.

[Oscar Namechange]

Jester;1140442 wrote: So what-

We are a nation having free choice of association. Who we decide to hang out with is our own choice and not the business of the government- whats next forcing me to have a equal number of racially different friends, can I only go out with an indiginous man of native descent and a black man of african descent and an asian man of oriental descent, (lets not leave out a mexican and a canadian) must I further choose my group by religion as well? Jew, Catholic, Muslum, Christian? How far do I carry it, blonde, brunette, redhead... does sexual preference count- gay, straight, transgendered?

It does not make me a coward to hang out with just white guys. I'd like him to say that to my face.


Now that is a sight I'd pay really good money to see. Hi Jester, can't stop, off to bed here in blighty. :):)

[spot]

I'll offer a comforting thought. There's nobody in England whose ancestry contains only Normans or only Celts or only Vikings or only Jutes or Saxons, those of us whose ancestors were around these parts during the Norman Conquest are all a genetic as well as a cultural mix. Nobody spends their weekends talking just with the descentants of Saxons or of Celts or of Picts. It's how assimilation works in the long run. The pain is all in getting used to the process before it's completed.

And yes, there were a bunch of Normans who held out marrying their children to those like them for quite a while. They lost that fight.

[chonsigirl]

Well, if he wants to hang with me, and help wash the dishes and go with me to TKD, I don't have a problem with it.

But I really don't want to attend Washingtonian stuff, I am not a politico. He will have to tote along with me, I have a very busy life.

[chonsigirl]

Oh Jester, that is not who I think of when I kick the boards....................:yh_whistl

And it's not Mr. Obama either.

[chonsigirl]

Yes, the power of positive thinking-when someone was selected for that cabinet, I took out my high blood pressure on the boards, and that face, and whamooo! A winner everytime!

Never knew I had it in me, I shall remember that person again tomorrow night at sparring..........:wah:

[Kindle]

I think his statement was inflamatory and he should not have used the position of Attorney General as a vehicle to deliver it.

[Oscar Namechange]

Jester;1140505 wrote: I think his statements are exactly what will divide this nation further down racial lines.

This administration is pushing an in yer face racial agenda- its provocative and its foolish, it will cause racial riots, not get us talking about it in a peaceful manner. The people who aren't racist, like me for instance have long since decided to treat everyone by thier actions and not thier skin color we dont need any further lessons in racial disparity or equality, just leave it alone. And I think the vast majority of folks fall into my camp on this one- most of us just dont care what color anybody else is.



The social engineering crowd is in power, and all I can do is shake my head in amazement at thier stupidity, they will force it to come to a head and cause more inner turmoil so they can then point it out and say see there I told you so. Let people change one at a time and stop forcing it. I got up, I can't sleep :wah: I believe as Kindle said, in his position he should not have said this in public. It would just not be tolerated here and his resignation would be called for. It shows that in HIS mind, there is racism when i bet half the people didn't even think it until he said it.

[Kindle]

oscar;1140513 wrote: I got up, I can't sleep :wah: I believe as Kindle said, in his position he should not have said this in public. It would just not be tolerated here and his resignation would be called for. It shows that in HIS mind, there is racism when i bet half the people didn't even think it until he said it.


It is kind of like the political cartoon that has raised such a stink this week. If it had not been called racist, many of us would never have seen or heard about it.

[scholle-kid]

Speaking afterwards to reporters, he added: "If we're going to ever make progress, we're going to have to have the guts, we have to have the determination, to be honest with each other. It also means we have to be able to accept criticism where that is justified."





Acknowledging that Mr Obama's election made the US "fundamentally different", he lamented the fact that the nation "still had not come to grips with its racial past, nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way, the diverse future it is fated to have".



You know something ? I am so damn tired of hearing this kind of crap .



If we're going to ever make progress
umm, progress from what? slavery to president ?? what's with the IF







we're going to have to have the guts, we have to have the determination


I guess no one who has ever been in on any of the fights America had has ever shown any

guts or determination

starting with that fight to run off them guys wearing red coats that was sent over here by some king that wanted more more more while giving nothing nothing oh and a lot of nothing back ,, or how about that fight that started over 5 things ,one of which was slavery

and of course that problem America had ,, you know the one about all American people going to the same schools and having the same opportunities and having the same right to pursue happiness ,,

again I ask , progress from what? slavery to president ?? what's with the IF



I am so happy to hear this guy Acknowledging we had an election ,, just warms the heart,,





Now what or who is he saying we are fundamentally different" from ?

Heck fire we are no different from ALL the whole world , every country out there has ' self government 'and 'rights to say freely what ever' toward or against any one . We all know that , HUH ?





what does he have to [QUOTE lamented ][/QUOTE] about ? still had not come to grips with its racial past, nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way,



this coming from a black man standing in front of a bunch of people who are working for him in the white house..in Washington.



Ya know sometimes it makes a person wonder if they ( the black population ) will ever be happy or even just tolerant that it was a whole bunch of white guys dieing to help free them and a whole bunch more white guys killed by Germans to protect the freedoms they (the black) enjoyed while living here,, yes I will bet the blacks had it much more enjoyable then , say the Jews were ..and damned if there weren't more than a few white people standing up and yelling for change in the 1960's



and to go one more giant leap to an idea that has been in my mind ever since I heard the first black person saying something racial towards a white after Obama won,,

remember way back before any white slave owner was a slave owner? when there were black guys chasing and catching and selling other black guys to the spaniards ? Do this math ,, Obama's paternal people have always lived in Africa , his dad , and grandpa and grandpas grandpa etc.. none were over here ,,,remember way back ,,,when there were black guys chasing and catching and selling other black guys to the Spaniards ?

[Oscar Namechange]

scholle-kid;1140525 wrote: Speaking afterwards to reporters, he added: "If we're going to ever make progress, we're going to have to have the guts, we have to have the determination, to be honest with each other. It also means we have to be able to accept criticism where that is justified."





Acknowledging that Mr Obama's election made the US "fundamentally different", he lamented the fact that the nation "still had not come to grips with its racial past, nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way, the diverse future it is fated to have".



You know something ? I am so damn tired of hearing this kind of crap .



umm, progress from what? slavery to president ?? what's with the IF











I guess no one who has ever been in on any of the fights America had has ever shown any

guts or determination

starting with that fight to run off them guys wearing red coats that was sent over here by some king that wanted more more more while giving nothing nothing oh and a lot of nothing back ,, or how about that fight that started over 5 things ,one of which was slavery

and of course that problem America had ,, you know the one about all American people going to the same schools and having the same opportunities and having the same right to pursue happiness ,,

again I ask , progress from what? slavery to president ?? what's with the IF



I am so happy to hear this guy we had an election ,, just warms the heart,,





Now what or who is he saying we are from ?

Heck fire we are no different from ALL the whole world , every country out there has ' self government 'and 'rights to say freely what ever' toward or against any one . We all know that , HUH ?





what does he have to [QUOTE lamented ] about ? still had not come to grips with its racial past, nor has it been willing to contemplate, in a truly meaningful way,



this coming from a black man standing in front of a bunch of people who are working for him in the white house..in Washington.



Ya know sometimes it makes a person wonder if they ( the black population ) will ever be happy or even just tolerant that it was a whole bunch of white guys dieing to help free them and a whole bunch more white guys killed by Germans to protect the freedoms they (the black) enjoyed while living here,, yes I will bet the blacks had it much more enjoyable then , say the Jews were ..and damned if there weren't more than a few white people standing up and yelling for change in the 1960's



and to go one more giant leap to an idea that has been in my mind ever since I heard the first black person saying something racial towards a white after Obama won,,

remember way back before any white slave owner was a slave owner? when there were black guys chasing and catching and selling other black guys to the spaniards ? Do this math ,, Obama's paternal people have always lived in Africa , his dad , and grandpa and grandpas grandpa etc.. none were over here ,,,remember way back ,,,when there were black guys chasing and catching and selling other black guys to the Spaniards ?


I agree with all of your post. As i replied to Peg earlier, how the heck can America be racists or cowards if you've got a black man in the Whitehouse? When he whines that America has not come to grips with it's racial past then i see it more a case of him not wanting America to move on and FORGET the past. As you said 'progress from what to what'? It's nonsense. There is a hell of a far cry from segregation of blacks in white towns in the deep south in the early sixties to present day. Is America going to see a reversal of civil rights? What does he think is there for America to 'progress' from? Or does he want to take America back to the days of civil rights demo's and have himself seen as the new MLK or Malcolm X? America does not need to 'progress'. Britain still has racism issue's as does any country. In the 60's we had our own MLK but not in MLK's league. He was called 'Enoch Powell' and in 1968 he made a very famous speech. MLK's was 'I have a dream', this MP's speech was labelled 'Rivers of blood' by the press as he included the phrase in the speech. The speech rocked Parliment and the country. He was sacked as an MP and people of Britain took to the streets to protest. Many interpret his speech as racist but he was not a racist, he was addressing mass immigration that's all. There are people who will also mention 'Enoch Powell's' name if the subject of racism comes up in our country.

Your absolutely right about the Africans kidnapping their own for slavery.