Holder’s comments are backed up by statistics that say 56% of African Americans choose to live in cities while 54% of Caucasians live in rural towns. In fact, statistics show that many Caucasians move only in neighborhoods where there is little to no African American presence. Therefore while, we have embraced racism in terms of the workplace, we are still not socially integrated as many of us would like to think. Therefore as President Barack Obama said in his quote unquote race speech last spring, we can’t move forward in regards to race in this nation until we have a real discussion.
Well people, Attorney General Eric Holder has given us our second warning by calling us “A Nation of Cowards” when it comes to talking about race. When I first heard the words of Attorney General Holder, I said that was bold of him and to be honest, it was more than just bold, it is real. I have friends who are not black but many of them until this day, don’t like to talk about racial issues as much as many Americans would think. Then I have other friends who want to talk about race but only when it comes to reasons why African Americans are being hurt. However some of my friends embrace racism as a chance to understand other cultures and other people.
Until we as a nation embrace racism as a chance to understand other cultures and other people than we are a nation of cowards. America we can’t continue to ignore the race issue that has stained our nation for so long. Just because racism isn’t as openly seen as it used to be doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. In fact, we as people must begin to have real heart to heart conversations about our upbringings and where we come from a people in order to understand that we as people have more in common than what our skin color makes us to believe. In fact, we are a nation of cowards until we openly have conversations and dialogues help us a people understand why some cultures do this and others do that.
This is a marching order people not a cheap shot toward many of us. I know many of us would like to think that Attorney General Eric Holder is calling us cowards but in reality he is only calling those of us who don’t openly try to understand other cultures and other people who are different than us. Attorney General Holder isn’t talking to people like myself who befriends those who are different than me in terms of race and tries to understand their upbringing in order to understand them as a person and how we can help each other.
A nation of cowards is offensive to many but I don’t view it as offensive language but as language that should wake all of us up as Americans to be better neighbors and to be better Americans. Our nation is imperfect and the only way it can be perfect is by us embracing each other in a way to understand each other. Race in this country can never be fully understand until each of us take the time to understand other cultures, other ethnic groups, and other people who don’t act like us. Even those of us of the same race, can embrace each other more because we all have a different story and have a different upbringing. Not all African Americans have the same upbringing just like not all Caucasians and Hispanics don’t. That’s why we as a nation shouldn’t be offended by Attorney General’s Eric Holder’s comments but we should take it as a challenge to be more open. A challenge to be more frank with our neighbors, our friends, and our family’s about race.
The old notion that there are three things at a dinner table you don’t discuss which is politics, religion and race is a notion that was tested just this year as many Americans discussed politics at the table like never before. Not only was politics discussed but religion and race and that is the same type of discussions we need to continue to have at the water coolers at work and at our dinner tables. America we need to have more conversations centered on race talk that doesn’t say one once is better than the other but to understand each other’s race like we have never understood it.
America we are a nation of cowards if we can’t embrace the notion that there is so much we don’t know about different races and there is so much we share in common with different races. America we are a nation of cowards if we can’t openly talk to different races about life and if we can’t socialize with other races outside of work in order to understand each other. America we are a nation of cowards if we don’t embrace other races in a way that helps us to strengthen our imperfect union in a way that we have never done before. Our nation needs for us as Americans to step up and realize that it is nothing wrong with talking about race as long as we are doing it to understand each other and get information rather than to demonize or talk bad about other races.
America we are a nation of cowards if we don’t make this union more perfect. Each of us must play our role in improving our nation and in helping to tackle the race issue that has left a bad stain on our nation for centuries. Therefore Attorney General Eric Holder’s comments were not meant to be offensive and they were not meant to be taken as harsh words but they were meant to be taken as a challenge. In fact it was a challenge to all of us to be better going forward in how we socialize with other races and how we embrace other cultures and people so that we can understand each other better. America that is what our new Attorney General wants from us and the timing of Eric Holder’s words are just right since it is Black History Month.
America, we all need to understand that Black History is American History and until American history embraces more of African American History, Hispanic History and Women’s History than our nation’s race issue will always cast a shadow over our nation. A nation of cowards is what we are by not acknowledging that there is more to America’s history than Caucasian male history. Our history is rich and it is filled with many great accomplishments from other races and from women. That’s why Attorney General Eric Holder is right when he calls us a nation of cowards. So let’s accept the challenge and make this nation BETTER and GREATER than how we found it. Let’s stop being “A Nation of COWARDS” and let’s start being “A Nation of HEROES,” “A Nation of BRAVERY”, and “A Nation of COURAGE.” That’s our mission so let’s live up to it not just now but forever.
A NATION OF COWARDS TODAY BUT TOMORROW A NATION OF PATROITS!
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