Dear Attorney General Holder,
The other day you stated:
“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.”
Upon considering your remarks, I conclude that you are absolutely correct. So please allow me the opportunity to demonstrate some courage and address your statement that we “simply do not talk enough with each other about race.”
As you undoubtedly know, the politically correct racial elite have made it extremely difficult to express much of anything. As you said, “[I]f we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with each other and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us.”
It is time, then, for you to spearhead an anti-political correctness movement so as to make members of all races fully comfortable with saying what is on their minds without consequence. Don’t ask for talk with one hand while restraining talk with the other.
Secondly, as our attorney general, you should be teaching the citizenry that, as a legal matter, racial discrimination was outlawed decades ago. Obviously, creating laws does not in and of itself stop crimes; yet that is true of all crimes. Instead, you seem to join your fellow elites, including the president, in teaching the country that racism not only still exists but is a fundamental and flourishing problem throughout America.
Additionally, this nation has spent tremendous sums over decades on the “problem” of racism. Prior to the debt added by virtue of the Iraq War, the amount of money spent on Great Society programs and related race-related reparatory government programs virtually equaled the size of our pre-President Obama national debt — roughly seven trillion dollars. Contrary to the language of black “leaders,” which is always built upon the presuppositions that racism thrives today, that the country has done little to address it, and that ultimately the nation somehow needs to begin to make blacks whole, America had basically thrust itself near to insolvency in attempting to relieve itself of its “white guilt.”
It is interesting that prior to President Obama’s election, our excessive national debt level was labeled by Democrats as a sign of the failure of the Republican Congress and President Bush — disregarding years of extraordinary spending put and held in place by Democrats. President Obama is now confronted with an economy which he is destroying in large part by raising our national debt to levels that will quite possibly put the nation in a fiscal crisis the likes of which we have never seen, not even during the Great Depression.
Most importantly, however, if one wants to truly look forward, be hopeful, and clearly foster “Change” as the President Obama devotees claim, it is not very difficult. What one needs to do is to treat others the way one wishes to be treated. Simply stop seeing race and racism everywhere you look. Just as “peace” really needs no “process,” racism can be stopped instantly by ceasing to see everything in terms of “black and white.” Stop clinging to the past, stop demanding that the country be described as racist, stop referring to all the “racial matters” that confront us, stop all of the racial crisis rhetoric, and act as if the country has gotten beyond the racial horrors onto which you and your fellow elites insist upon holding. You will be amazed at what will result.
Further, stop using race to camouflage other agendas. President Obama’s guru, community organizer creator Saul Alinsky, framed the critical issue for his fellow radicals as organizing the Have-Nots to take power form the Haves. That is also clearly the president’s agenda and, presumably, yours as a public servant of his. It is high time this agenda is not hidden within a racial disguise. Let’s drop the cloak and call a spade a spade; and do not read that as racist either! Let issues of wealth distribution and re-distribution (the foundation of President Obama’s agenda) be of just that, not of race. Otherwise, it is you who are guilty of the ultimate racism — the attempt to transfer wealth and power from one race to another.
White guilt, or the attempt by whites to rid themselves of the moral stigma of racism, has been brilliantly described by Shelby Steele, a former black activist. Also well described is how black “leaders” have taken advantage for years of white guilt to extract a multitude of benefits for themselves, in the first case, and additionally for blacks as a whole. If you want to advance the elimination of the racism you see in this country, start by eliminating all manipulation of white guilt and the addiction to the victimhood status the black “leaders” foist upon much of the black population.
Addiction is precisely the correct word here and your comments demonstrate that you are an addict as well. And those who suffer from the white guilt syndrome are enablers of this addiction. We have endured at least five decades of this addiction. It is a two partner dance and what needs to be done is to make sure the music is stopped altogether, not merely changed from waltz to tango.
You stated that we “need to be honest with each other.” If you were honest, however, you would be willing to speak out against the addictive and enabling behaviors that have been agreed upon by blacks and whites for years. Victimhood has been proffered not only by the shakedown artists, the blackmailers, the Sharptons, the Jacksons, the “elite professors” in most high schools and universities, but by the many politicians and office holders like yourself who are more than happy to demonstrate their white guilt or black addiction to victimhood by throwing around other people’s (the nation’s) money for racial methadone to their own political benefit. Trillions have been spent to feed the addiction. No wonder you and the president, much less all of those who fall for your oratory, find it so difficult to stop and change. Simply put, “talk” has become part of the addiction and enabling, not of the cure. It cleverly maintains the status quo by appearing to move toward change.
If you truly want “Change,” Mr. Attorney General — as your boss has so brilliantly convinced the nation he does — the secret lies in giving up all attachment to the racist narrative. All of the years of talk of victimhood has trained our “nanny state.” As Alinsky would say, the talk has “frozen” the matter. Give it up now. President Obama talks as if he wants to take a bold step forward but underneath all his teleprompter rhetoric is simply more of the same support for the very addiction that afflicts us all.
Racism is a state of mind. If you insist on seeing differences, whether it be in skin color, competence, intelligence, opportunity, or a host of other characteristics susceptible of judgment, that is what you will see. If we are to have the necessary “guts,” as you demanded, we must decide boldly to stop this addiction immediately, cold turkey, and presuppose that race is not the problem; victimhood and its enabling complement is. It is time to unfreeze the issue. Where is all that optimism the president sold his voters?
As the president said while seeking votes, “Now is the time!” Don’t talk about being “post-racial” — be post-racial. Take the mote out of your eye, insist that others do the same, and after a while, see if the country has not fundamentally changed. Then we can “talk” all you want.
Signed,
Give Me Real Change
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