I Wish The Cowards Would Shut Up

I could not help notice two very different [but not so different] stories today about race and how we talk or don’t talk about it.

The first story comes from the mouth of the new Attorney General Eric Holder. Mr. Holder says the we are a “nation of cowards.” Not the usual stuff you get from politicians but these days anything goes. If Obama can day after day bloviate about how the crisis du jour is unprecedented and not seen since [make up a date] and requires massive government intervention or else we will all die, I suppose the coward remark is tame by comparison. Anyway, in context, here is what the AG had to say:

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.

Hmmm? Ok? I don’t know, it seems like we talk about race quite often. In fact, we talk about race even when race has nothing to do with it. Case in point. On the same day the AG is calling us cowards for not talking about race, there is somebody who refuses to shut up about it. Mr. Its a Outrage himself, Al Sharpton.

There is a big story here in NY about a 200lb chimp that attacked a woman and had to be shot by police. The NY Post had the following editorial cartoon referencing the behemoth spending bill and the chimp incident.

Al Sharpton, of course, sees racsim.

[CNN] “The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best, given the racist attacks throughout history that have made African-Americans synonymous with monkeys,” Sharpton said.

Sharpton questioned whether Delonas “is making a less-than-casual inference to this form of racism.”

“The Post should at least clarify what point they were trying to make in this cartoon, and reprimand their cartoonist for making inferences that are offensive and divisive at a time the nation struggles to come together to stabilize the economy if, in fact, this was yet another racially charged cartoon,” he said.

What?!? Give it a rest Al. At least three other references could and should be understood by looking at the cartoon, none of them racist. Besides, Obama didn’t even write the bill. Whitey the Heretic (aka Nancy Pelosi) is responsible for that particular debacle.

At this point, I am content to live in a nation of cowards. I just wish the darn cowards would just shut up about it.