New Attorney-General Eric Holder announced at a Department of Justice shindig marking Black History Month:
Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. 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 race.
America's most distinguished man of science, James D. Watson, talked about race back in 2007. How'd that work out for him?
It is an issue we have never been at ease with, and given our nation’s history this is in some ways understandable. And yet, if we are to make progress in this area we must feel comfortable enough with one another, and tolerant enough of each other, to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us....
I'm just doing my Department of Justice-mandated job here at iSteve.
To our detriment, this is typical of the way in which this nation deals with issues of race. And so I would suggest that we use February of every year to not only commemorate black history but also to foster a period of dialog among the races. This is admittedly an artificial device to generate discussion that should come more naturally, but our history is such that we must find ways to force ourselves to confront that which we have become expert at avoiding.
What a brilliant new idea! Back in 1997, Holder's old boss, Bill Clinton, started his National Conversation on Race that went on every month for a year. Granted, that was an embarrassing flop. So, in complete contrast, Holder is calling for a National Dialogue on Race that goes on every year for a month. It's totally different!
As a nation we have done a pretty good job in melding the races in the workplace. We work with one another, lunch together and, when the event is at the workplace during work hours or shortly thereafter, we socialize with one another fairly well, irrespective of race. And yet even this interaction operates within certain limitations. We know, by "American instinct" and by learned behavior, that certain subjects are off limits and that to explore them risks, at best embarrassment, and, at worst, the questioning of one’s character.
So, Dr. Watson should get a big apology from everybody, right?
... And outside the workplace the situation is even more bleak in that there is almost no significant interaction between us. On Saturdays and Sundays America in the year 2009 does not, in some ways, differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago....
But we must do more, and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must -- and will -- lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest president. This is our duty and our solemn obligation.
Uhhmm, you guys at the Department of Justice, you have guns and badges and prisons, right? So, maybe it's a little creepy for you to be talking about what private citizens must do in private.
... There can, for instance, be very legitimate debate about the question of affirmative action. This debate can, and should, be nuanced, principled and spirited. But the conversation that we now engage in as a nation on this and other racial subjects is too often simplistic and left to those on the extremes who are not hesitant to use these issues to advance nothing more than their own narrow self interest.
So, what I'm hearing the nation's Top Cop say is that public debate over affirmative action is only okay if it's "nuanced" -- in other words, if it stays within the parameters of a Barack Obama sentence beginning with the word "Notwithstanding ..." Wouldn't it be more convenient for everybody if instead of demanding that citizens improvise their lines without stumbling into "extremes," the Justice Department would simply issues scripts for everybody to read from? It would be like a school pageant for grown-ups! Or better yet, we could all chant together President Obama's speech about Rev. Wright.
Our history has demonstrated that the vast majority of Americans are uncomfortable with, and would like to not have to deal with, racial matters and that is why those, black or white, elected or self-appointed, who promise relief in easy, quick solutions, no matter how divisive, are embraced.
"Easy, quick solutions" -- like voting for Barack Obama? You mean electing Obama President isn't going to fix anything? Damn...
We are then free to retreat to our race-protected cocoons where much is comfortable and where progress is not really made.
If we allow this attitude to persist in the face of the most significant demographic changes that this nation has ever confronted -- and remember, there will be no majority race in America in about 50 years -- the coming diversity that could be such a powerful, positive force
DIVERSITY IS UNITY
will, instead, become a reason for stagnation and polarization. We cannot allow this to happen and one way to prevent such an unwelcome outcome is to engage one another more routinely -- and to do so now.
Self-Criticism Sessions ahoy!
As O'Brien, the Inner Party member, explained:
"We are not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us; so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instance of death we cannot permit any deviation . . . we make the brain perfect before we blow it out."
That said, I must strongly defend Attorney General Holder's mustache against all the snickering. Why, I ask you, shouldn't a man wear a mustache just because he is neither a homosexual, a fireman, nor a relief pitcher? Holder's is quite dapper in a William Powell gentleman-of-a-certain-age way.
I call for a national dialogue on overcoming prejudice against mustaches.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
Posts
43 comments:
"I'm just doing my Department of Justice-mandated job here at iSteve."
Yeah, but you're not telling them what they want to hear. So you can expect a knock on your door sooner than you think...
Eh, where are they planning to locate the gulags? For those who get dragged off after confessing at the regular self-criticism session planned for each company.
On the one hand, at least some snazzy landowners can make a killing selling off the land to the gov. I forgot, the land will be nationalised beforehand.
On the other hand, at least Americans know what to expect since the Russians and Chinese worked out the template for them.
Holder's words got a lot of fury. Many threatening him to say that to their face.
It's overplaying. A huge mistake that is going to help sink Obama, little by little.
As long as the going was good, money was being made, and good times were rolling, why rock the boat? Why say what Watson said and get defenestrated?
Well, good times are NOT rolling. White men are first fired, last hired. Robert Reich is determined to make it so. Holder is ranting about his hate Whitey(tm) views and how we are all cowards and racists. Welfare is now a permanent "right" as long as you are non-White and the question is not why make waves and risk all the money rolling in.
No, it's how soon you will be gone. To make way for someone else. No downside risk. Cause it's all downside anyway.
Holder was ten kinds of stupid. Proof positive that pandering to anti-White sentiment among Blacks and Rich White Yuppies makes for poisonous politics that are self-destructive.
Endless demands for White apologies and groveling by PC Commissars are not compatible with a deep recession and growing anger.
Moreover, Orwell's 1984 depended on brute force which meant a force of gunmen and thugs, who had to be paid and paid well. Just as Stalin's were.
Watson was not killed Stalin-style. Or even Putin-style. He was fired. If you are already getting fired anyway, who cares?
The NY Post doubled down on Sharpton. They basically told him to go to hell. Over the Chimp-shooting cartoon.
Holder just called every White person a coward and racist. He's going to regret it, and so will Obama.
Mustaches, okay I guess. But the whole hmfh (high-maintenance facial hair) thingy that circles the whole piehole and, I'm imagining, has to be carefully tended daily I'll never understand.
I don't think Holder's comments were out of line. I think what he said has merit: we are a nation of cowards with regards to race.
But the politically correct masses will surely interpret that in a different manner than the constituency of this website. Basically, whitey is keeping out all those high intelligence brothas.
But I think we all now who really hinders the racial discourse in this country (hint: it ain't whitey). As an example, I've been involved in a longstanding debate at a forum regarding racial differences. Not one person has responded to the actual studies, just smeared me with accusations that I'm a racist, black-hating, narrow-minded loser who must have been molested as a child (seriously someone said this).
The polite discourse in this country regarding race is always the championing of Harriet Tubman, affirmative action, and the prevalence of institutional racism. Anything else is considered "fringe" and racist by the angry, bitter blowhards.
Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards. 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 race.
Either Holder's behind the times or that's a ringing endorsement of VNN and Stormfront's "Opposing Views" subforum to me. Hell, even far left loonies are permitting non-PC race talk, like this "Maoist" Robert Lindsay fellow over at his blog.
T99: "No downside risk."
You're 180 degrees wrong. If you're still employed, you've got plenty to lose; it's a rough time to be job hunting. If you're unemployed, you've already lost, and why should anyone care what a loser has to say?
i don't think holder was encouraging americans to discuss race in public. i'm pretty confident he was doing nothing more than calling out europeans on exercising their right to free association. perhaps holder thinks europeans should not even have a right to free association.
whenever the fedgov thinks whitey has too much of an advantage, it steps in with discrmination laws to reduce european freedom of association even further. so i expect holder to extend the reach of fedgov even further over the next 4 years. perhaps a quota on how many white households are allowed per square mile, or a rooney rule for hiring corporate CEOs.
though if these guys had their way, it would be illegal for more than 3 white people to congregate in the same place.
Moreover, Orwell's 1984 depended on brute force which meant a force of gunmen and thugs, who had to be paid and paid well. Just as Stalin's were.
T99, we have that already:
- local police forces
- federal police forces
- the military
The ridicule that moustaches evoke is deserved.
They are usually ugly and gross. Think of Thomas Friedman's and certainly, Eric Holder's.
I mean, men should try to look good for women, shouldn't they?
And aesthetics matter in life.
Every time I see him, I'm bothered by that mouch.
--a female
The problem here is that the same people who tell us to open up and talk honestly about our feelings are the same ones who are certain to break out the torches and pitchforks when we do so.
If i nod my head and agree, then i'm a coward for not having an "open dialog". If tell him that i honestly disagree with him, then i'm a heretic, because any opinion that Mr Holder doesn't like is not a valid opinion. There's just no way to please some people.
My own internal dialogue on race began with the LA riots, and was renewed with the OJ Simpson verdict and Hurricane Katrina. Does that dialogue fall within the accepted bounds, Mr. Holder?
"As an example, I've been involved in a longstanding debate at a forum regarding racial differences. Not one person has responded to the actual studies, just smeared me with accusations that I'm a racist, black-hating, narrow-minded loser who must have been molested as a child (seriously someone said this)."
Seriosuly, you are wasting your time on the forum. Anything else other than complete and total agreement with these kinds of people is RACISM.
It's overplaying. A huge mistake that is going to help sink Obama, little by little.
He's overplaying everything.
Steve, you quote AG Holder: "And so I would suggest that we use February of every year to not only commemorate black history but also to foster a period of dialog among the races." [emphasis added]
Before going further, I think we should be sure about what the General means. He didn't say between but among, in an ambiguous way. Blacks conversing among themselves and whites among themselves, or blacks-and-whites conversing among themselves, plural?
I hope that some of Holder's subordinates visit iSteve soon, collect IP addresses of visitors, and determine their racial identities. That's the only way to be sure that this website is compliant with the letter and spirit of the new Directive on Conversation.
Whatever they are.
What is it that the AG wants us to say anyway?
"Black people are naturally better at basketball."
"That's racist!"
"Sorry. My bad."
That was helpful. I feel so much better now.
Considering what happened to Watson it's easy to see why people would be 'cowards' about talking about race.
Holder - you might want to spend your time enforcing the laws not babbling.
Holder looks like he could an illegitimate child of Ralph Nader.
Holder just called every White person a coward and racist. He's going to regret it, and so will Obama.
Yeah, that dog don't hunt no more. No one under 30 buys into that crap nowadays. Even those over 30 are getting pretty tired of hearing it.
Your last point is very telling, Ivy. Fringe and racist. We are told that being racially aware makes you racist, and that being a racist makes you dangerous, weird, and inexplicable. Hence the grasping for explanations like "child abuse".
Yet we are also told that we are a whole nation of racists. A nation of people can't all be "weird" in the same way. I would think people would notice that but when their brain is in a straight jacket of PC multicultism, anything can happen.
The resolution, of course, lies in understanding that:
A. It will always be common to notice something that is obvious.
B. It will always be possible for those with sufficient discipline to ignore it.
C. People are often proud of mental discipline, even if it causes them to be stupid.
Anyone who is having trouble understanding this should reason Lasch's The True and Only Heaven, or at least the chapter on "The Politics of the Civilized Minority".
Part of the way the left stays in power is by cultivating the cherished notion that they are the underdogs in a sort of legalistic judo bout in which the best they can hope to do is use the momentum of the Weird Racist Majority against it. (Plus they can also teach the next generation that anti-black racism is the worst thing in the world, worse than anti-white racism even if the latter causes mass violence in the present, while the former mainly caused it in that past. But that is a different post.)
The important thing is to remember that the NAMs are pawns; other than Obama and Holder and a few others, the puppetmasters are usually white "liberals".
Ivy - Not one person has responded to the actual studies, just smeared me with accusations that I'm a racist, black-hating, narrow-minded loser who must have been molested as a child (seriously someone said this).
I think many of us have had those debates on-line if not in real life. They can't respond reasonably, if they do they already are half-way to joining the dark side - crime stop - in their hearts many of them know this and want to stay in their comfort zone.
Where is this forum? Maybe I can be your wingman there, not promising anything, but we have to carry the fight to the enemy sometimes. Its almost my hobby now!
I wonder how the media would've treated Bush's AG if the latter had waited only a couple weeks before telling America how his conservative secular religion must enter everyone's bedroom.
"Creepy" doesn't even begin to describe it. This is what happens when you let "the other" run your social nervous system; you get a government that conforms to the other's norms, and not yours.
Happily, the administration is Democrat and thus ipso facto not "creepy," no matter how Orwellian it sounds.
A quick PC to English cheat sheet:
Honest Dialogue on Race
-----------------------
Honest = Dishonest
Dialogue = Monologue
Race = The faults of white people
Steve mentioned Clinton's "National Conversation on Race." See a black columnist's view on this, written back in 1998:
Whites not allowed
Excerpt: He then described events from one of the conferences sponsored that year by Bill Clinton's President's Advisory Board on Race, where the white Robert Hoy, an audience observer, took the initiative, from a floor microphone, to point out that no one on the discussion panels were speaking for white people. This conference, billed as an "honest discussion on race" and part of a year-long symposium, turned out to be just another assembly for the airing of minority grievances, and was completely controlled by activist blacks and their white partisans.
-- Victoria
"Holder is ranting about his hate Whitey(tm) views and how we are all cowards and racists."
Yep, he probably wears saggy jeans and cornrows when nobody's watching and does the terrorist fist bump with his wife when he hears about a whitey getting jumped by a bunch of N's at school.
Truthfully though, all middle class blacks, no matter how light-skinned, well-behaved or successful are ghetto and boorish and hate whites. Actually testing, you have, astoundingly stumbled upon the BlackMan's plot for world domination, make you think we're all nice will smith types and then CASTRATE YOU!!!
And we would have gotten away with if too if it wasn't for you meddling kids!
"Not one person has responded to the actual studies, just smeared me with accusations that I'm a racist, black-hating, narrow-minded loser who must have been molested as a child..."
Well, the two are not mutually exclusive.
"Truthfully though, all middle class blacks, no matter how light-skinned, well-behaved or successful are ghetto and boorish and hate whites."
The two are not mutually exclusive.
Truth --
Middle Class blacks do not attempt to win broad political power by appealing to non SWPL Whites. They win power by race-baiting (see Obama) or being race-baiting technocrats (Holder never won a statewide election, much less one where he won on the middle/working class White vote).
This makes them instinctive race-baiters, because it plays well in SWPL precincts and among poor Blacks (and Middle class ones too).
That was all well and good when the good times were rolling and there was too much money at stake for everyone to raise a fuss.
NOW ... now it is pure spoils politics. A shrinking pie (even under socialism you run out of other people's money as Thatcher observed). Which means a raw spoils fight and Blacks are only 12.5% of the population.
Look at advertising: Blacks make up easily 65% of actors, yet are only 12.5% of the population and for many targeted goods and services far less than that.
Holder and Obama made a huge mistake, thinking that the same social dynamics of the past will continue under hard times.
What he's likely to create is a thousand Jessie Helms "Hands Ads" (showing white hands holding a rejection letter because of Affirmative Action mandating "black hands" get that job). In hard times where it's a matter of survival to get a job, race-baiting from the minority is electoral suicide. Even the frayed alliance between single white women who hate most White men and Blacks, SWPL Yuppies won't hold under that conditions. Since they'll be second fired.
Jody wrote:
"i'm pretty confident he was doing nothing more than calling out europeans on exercising their right to free association. perhaps holder thinks europeans should not even have a right to free association."
Yes, this is the key to his entire shtick. He's saying, You whites are civil enough to blacks in the workplace, Monday through Friday, but how dare you not enfold us to your bosoms on Saturday and Sunday? How dare you not wish to include us in your social circles, so we may gain greater intimacy into your lives?
Black militants liked to say that it is whites who are obsessed with blacks. But, we all know that it's the other way around.
-- Victoria
"What he's likely to create is a thousand Jessie Helms "Hands Ads" (showing white hands holding a rejection letter because of Affirmative Action mandating "black hands" get that job)."
Heh heh. I was just wondering how many times I've been passed over for a job or a promotion due to affirmative action. I'll never know, because while the Supreme Court has effectively required quotas (by allowing lawsuits based on nothing other than the numerical "underrepresentation" of designated victim group in a workforce or student body), it has also banned honesty about the matter (by banning de jure quotas).
I'm sure Holder, with his demands for honesty, will set this straight right away.
Naw just kidding.
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't 'America's Top Cop' just a glorified civil servant?
Errr, Hatch Act of 1939? An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities?
What's next? Department of Agriculture calls for eradication of white wheat because it's inherently racist?
"Where is this forum? Maybe I can be your wingman there, not promising anything, but we have to carry the fight to the enemy sometimes. Its almost my hobby now!"
I really really wish you would've asked me that a few days ago. The thread seems to have hit a rut, but it's a good read nonetheless. My name is dontno. Mr Payne is on my side and also informed that he reads Sailer and HalfSigma. Here's the first page of the thread.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe-election-politics/640746-why-haven-t-white-people-so-proud-claim-obama-one-them-not-also-claimed.html
You'll have to sign up if you want to post. You'll note the last 5 pages or so are me giving evidence and them responding with ridiculous ad hominem attacks.
LOL. Mr. Holder has somehow managed to ignore the pages upon pages of discussion of race on the World Wide Web, which has been going strong for at least these past 10 years. Or is that the wrong type of candor?
--Senor Doug
I am reminded of the Paraguayan dictator Francia who forced the local Spanish descended elite to marry Indians so as to break the power of the white upper class through forced miscegenation. Probably a good topic for an iSteve article.
@ 'Anonymous' about thread on racial differences:
Let me know if you post on the thread. Or if you don't, let me know what you thought of it.
If you sign up, you can search for my posts (dontno) specifically to save yourself some time if you don't want to read the entire thread. It's a pretty good read, so it might be worth it anyway.
"Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't 'America's Top Cop' just a glorified civil servant?
Errr, Hatch Act of 1939? An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities?"
It's a matter of opinion who the "top cop" is. You could pick a career professional instead of a political appointee and you'd probably be on the right track. Political appointees are notorious for having little influence over details. Furthermore, we have no European-style Minister of Interior who controls all the national law enforcement agencies ... sort of an oversight, in my opinion. Used to be, the Department of the Treasury included more Federal LEOs (ATF, Secret Service, Customs, etc.) than did Justice, but the former lost most of those folks to DHS.
(Of course, I'm not advocating the creation of a "top cop" position. Wouldn't work. If someone tried it, it would change from a command position (like a JCS Chairman for law enforcement) into an advisory position (a "police czar") during the markups. That is to say, it would neither replace the chiefs of the badge-and-gun agencies, nor would it subordinate them, it would just be added to them. Any position like that is at risk of becoming a sinecure.)
I think Sailer is referring to the Attorney General that way to highlight how creepy it is that the cabinet member in charge of both the FBI and civil rights prosecutions is trying to shame people into talking about a matter that whites constantly get screamed at for talking about.
Or is that the wrong type of candor?
Which brings up an interesting point; who do these ostriches think is going to have sharp claws if the discussion ever does break out of the ghetto? Liberals? Ha!
This commenter has had every last bit of white guilt burned out of him. Unlike most whites, I no longer default to "the other fellow has a point of view" when confused. Now I go on the assault, like Joan Rivers vs. that hapless black guy on BBC some time back. So, I now have the attitude of a leftist, to go with the side that naturally has all the facts in hand.
Oops. I guess this is happens when you excommunicate people en masse; they start up heretic cults.
Anonymous said...
Yeah, that dog don't hunt no more. No one under 30 buys into that crap nowadays. Even those over 30 are getting pretty tired of hearing it.
Then why did all of those college students vote for Obama? Whites gave almost half of their votes to the Obamanation. This is waking up?
AG Holder said...
But we must do more, and we in this room bear a special responsibility. Through its work and through its example this Department of Justice, as long as I am here, must -- and will -- lead the nation to the "new birth of freedom" so long ago promised by our greatest president. This is our duty and our solemn obligation.
It creeps me out that Obama's worshippers keep comparing O to Lincoln. The magazine rack at my store actually has an entire end devoted to Obama with a few special editions right nearby of Lincoln. Lincoln wanted to send the slaves back to Africa after the war was over, but never got the chance. Also, if Obama is the new Lincoln are we on the verge of a new Civil War?
Then why did all of those college students vote for Obama? Whites gave almost half of their votes to the Obamanation. This is waking up?
Because during the presidential campaign, Obama studiously avoided Sharpton-style haranguing and guilt-tripping. He presented himself as a laid-back, post-racial healer who wouldn't try to make you feel bad about being white. People didn't vote for Holder. He's our surprise gift.
But Holder's bullshit is already blowing up in his face. Look at all the unfavorable press his stupid stunt has generated. Only the most dippy leftwing rags are buying this "nation of cowards" crap.
I'd love to see us have honest dialog on race in the US, though I can't see how it will happen until the MSM loses even more power over national discourse. At that point, there will no longer be a gatekeeper on the discussions in public, and we will likely see honest discussion.
When that happens (it will be gradual), I think we'll see some very firey rhetoric and arguments at first, but we'll end up at a sensible and pretty moderate consensus, for a few reasons:
a. Most whites aren't especially hostile toward blacks. We have no desire to be victimized by black (or white) criminals, but overwhelmingly, we've been going to school with, living next door to, and working with blacks our whole lives. They're just people. The image that lots of/most whites are smoldering piles of racial resentment who must be suppressed at all costs is basically a media creation.
b. Most blacks, at least the middle-class blacks I know and interact with, are also not all that obsessed with race. The loudmouthed, racially obsessed grievance-seeking "black spokesmen" out there are overwhelmingly media-appointed, with an eye to both stirring up controversy and portraying their idiotic racial agenda.
c. Everyone with open eyes can see that there's a great deal of pathology in poor black communities--plenty in poor white communities, too, but not nearly as much. This would be consensus on the same level as "wife beating is bad," were it not for MSM gatekeepers suppressing that sort of discussion wherever possible. When MSM gatekeepers lose power, that consensus will emerge, and it will be a good thing.
d. All kinds of topics like race/IQ differences and race/crime differences will no longer be suppressed. But most people paying any attention already broadly know or suspect these things, so they also won't really be all that explosive. Most of us can actually live in a world where the average IQ for blacks is 85, but where black cardiologists and chemical engineers are still really, really smart people.
None of the Above; well done.
Truth:
Be careful; if you keep agreeing with None of the Above's common sense, we might end up cellmates in a reeducation center. OK, I'm joking, but you do know that post you just praised is well beyond the pale of acceptable discourse, don't you?
None of the above, I would like to add that if we repeal the laws that allow suits when a Black feels he has been wrongly fired, then there will no longer be a reward for those who want to make false accusations in order to get paid off.
"but you do know that post you just praised is well beyond the pale of acceptable discourse, don't you?"
No question about it, but believe me, Of all of the people on this site I am the one most bothered by political correctness.
"Look at advertising: Blacks make up easily 65% of actors,"
Are you insane?
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