Thinking Out Loud - Holder and the Change in Racism

AP reported on Feb. 18, 2009 that Attorney General Eric Holder said, "Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards."

I grew up in Philadelphia during the sixties and seventies. I witnessed first hand some very real racism, as many people did all around this country. My first experience was with a house around the corner from my grade school when I was in fifth grade. It had been gutted by fire and all the furniture within shoved out onto the sidewalk. There was graffiti scrawled across the front of the row home. It said lots of things I will not deign to repeat as they were as ugly as it got. I could not understand why anyone would do this, and asked my parents what it was all about.

From what I overheard by the adults around us and our teachers who were discussing it (I went to a Catholic school with as mix of nuns and laypeople). They were quite agitated and heated in their discussions. It seems a black family was "reportedly" moving into the neighborhood. As soon as furniture was moved in, some evil people had torched the place. Needless to say, no one moved in for a while. And even those that did were not black.

My father had to explain that there were people in this world who did not like other people, actually hated them, for being different. This was a concept that was very new to me. My parents had always taught us that you should judge people on the merit of their character, not on the color of their skin or the faith of their choosing or the thickness of their wallet.

I had problems understanding this at first, because I had a good friend who was black. His father was one of the coolest people I knew, because he was an architect and I thought I might like to be one someday. He showed us his work and stuff, and always said hi when we came in. I also had Hispanic friends, and my best friend in Catholic school was actually Jewish, and I had Polish friends, friends who were well off and those who weren't. I had friends and family of many different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. I had friends who were jocks, nerds, gay (openly and in denial) and any number of things that made them different from me.

Now lest you say I never experienced a negative event regarding race, I would dispel this idea. There was a day I was waiting on a train, alone. A group of black kids arrived on the platform before the train came. They sent some poor little guy over to ask for a dollar. I didn't have one and told him so. He tried "selling" me a pack of cakes. Again I declined. Soon, the whole group surrounded me and produced some knives and chains. They said they would "take" my dollar from me, along with my watch and anything else I wanted. I went nuts and started screaming at them and yelling and jumping up and down. They backed off saying things like "Man, that white boy is crazy" and "I ain't going near that crazy f***."

The point here is that what I felt was fear at possibly being harmed, but I did not feel hatred because they were black. I felt angry that they would try to take something from me. I felt pity on the poor kid they had sent over first (possibly as some initiation ritual). But I never felt any racism or prejudice due to the color of their skin.

But sadly, my view of the world began changing that day in fifth grade. And I saw some people through a different lens. I heard some kids using the "N" word, others the denigrating words used on homosexuals (though I know for certain they didn't even know what a homosexual was since they used these derogatory terms quite wrongly). And I began having prejudices of my own.

I began to really dislike people who would judge a person on their skin color. I began to have strong negative emotions concerning those who would put down another person because they were different then themselves. I most of all cannot stand ignorance. This I feel is the worst prejudice of all. To be so ignorant that you don't understand the basic diversity and beauty of difference that surrounds us.

I will not stand before you and say that racism is dead in this country. As a matter of fact, it has changed course and color and ethnicity so many times, it may be unrecognizable. It has turned from black to homophobic to Muslim outrage to Hispanic retribution. But the racism of which Eric Holder spoke has subsided to a few outspoken people and groups that most Americans will dismiss as being stupid. I think maybe Morgan Freeman had it right when he said that in order to stop racism is to "astop talking about it." He explained his position by saying, "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man."

The worst racism of all, however, is that which disguises itself as righteous indignation. It seems that Eric Holder is a bigot. He hates anyone who is not him. For him to lambaste the entire country as cowards who will not face their racist bias shows a man who does not understand America and Americans. He is a man who does not understand the very basics of the real American society.

And he is a man who is not fit to be the defender of American justice. Anyone who can say what he said, and in the setting in which he said it, is a man on a power trip who may have been wronged in the past. He told a gathering of people beholden to him to keep their jobs these vile words. He had a captive audience before him who were unable to respond in any negative way.

Eric Holder does not deserve to be Attorney General of the United States. His past connections to defending terrorist and the recommendation of pardoning a known felon (who just happened to be wealthy and well connected) and his tenuous connection to the Elain Gonzales debacle may have been enough to warrant his not being selected as Attorney General, but his recent comments should be grounds for his immediate dismissal.

I call on President Obama to call for his apology and his letter of resignation.

Eric Holder must go.

Agree with my assessment of this distasteful man or think I am off my rocker for wanting any Obama cabinet member to resign. Either way, it makes no matter. This is just me, thinking out loud.

Have a great day!