Eric Holder's Comments

I've been trying to hold back from commenting on Eric Holder's statements.

For those of you who don't know, he said some dumbass things during his speech for Black History Month. Mainly that our country was "a nation of cowards".
I'm always skeptical when someone says something that stupid, that they almost had to be taken out of context. In the interest of fairness, I present his full speech.

At least a good portion of it.
You'll note that his statement is couched in the terms of addressing race. Still, its a pretty big thing to say that we are a nation of cowards when a good portion of the electorate voted in a black man regardless of his lack of experience.
Oh wait... maybe that's what Eric meant?

Yes, our country doesn't talk about race, Mr. Holder. But its difficult to dismiss this as mere cowardice considering the rest of your speech.
You said that you wanted to use the justice department as a bully pulpit to address why we don't talk about race. The JUSTICE department. The very same department that puts people in jail. The very same department that has the power to fine someone if they are suspected of not hiring someone - or not renting to them - because of their race. How can people be expected to talk openly about race when if they are even suspected of being racist, they can lose their business?

The head of the justice department asking us all to discuss race openly
=
Hitler saying that Jews should be proud to announce their nationality

Yes, there is always the outside chance that you won't be thrown into the concentration camp. -Or fined. -Or lose your job. But who wants to take that chance???

Let's all remember that Eric Holder works for the guy who hired a racist preacher as his spiritual adviser. And when confronted with the fact that his preacher was an out and out racist, Obama demurred that it was a good chance to talk about race?

I'm not dumb. I see a double standard when its being thrown at me.

I think we'd all like to sit down and discuss race openly. I hope it happens one day. But it won't happen when the penalties for improper speech (or improper thoughts) is this high.
No one is going to jump into that fire.