I am curious to hear the points based on which people disagree with Holder. Do people think they sincerely feel comfortable speaking about race in any context? If not, why is it so... cowardly? Maybe some other reason? Do people think that outside work social events and the like, they actually voluntarily socialize with people of other races (I guess African American in this case)? I am curious to hear both from African Americans and non African Americans. street.

Somebody shot my MONKEY!!!

This is #2, the word "street" after the post is a "typo".

This is #2, the word "street" after the post is a "typo".

This is #2, the word "street" after the post is a "typo".

Iowa has a law school?

BigEthanolLaw to $35K!

As someone who thinks Eric Holder can get too fierce, all I can say is...

THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS FOR JOHN MCCAIN!

Man, Obama really can't pick a winner, can he? Here I thought we'd be done with idiot presidents for a while. I guess I was wrong.

"Minnesota Senator-wannabe Norm Coleman?"

Try "former Senator Norm Coleman." If anything, Stuart Smalley is the "wannabe" in that race.

If you insist on being blatantly in the tank for the party of jackasses, at least be accurate when so doing.

Minnesota is an excellent case study in public perceptions. Franken was lucky enough to have a sympathetic court system and a corrupt recount process so now instead of FRANKEN looking like the one dragging it on, COLEMAN is the one dragging it on. Now Minnesota voters are starting to get fatigued and "Franken-win" is the status quo.

It really is bizarre. The consistent positions were (1) no legal challenges and Coleman wins or (2) wait for all legal challenges to finish.

I think post #3 answers your quest #2...how can you honestly discuss race (as a non-black) if anything (including a cartoon about the stimulus) can be labeled as racist by blacks.

Holder should be blasting Sharpton and other black community leaders for contributing to an environment where everything can be called racist - however, as Obama has echoed Sharpton's remarks over the cartoon, it would appear that no such rebuke will be forthcoming...

It's the conservatives in this country who are cowards about race. Just like how they're cowards about nearly everything else.

This should be Nos. 4, 5 and 6. The period outside the quotation is a "typo." street.

The quality of 13's trolling is quit high, but please don't take the bait.

Somebody shot my ASSLOBSTER!!

racist from Maine

Interesting #12, I will guess your answer is no, you don't feel comfortable talking about race. The follow up question is: how many Al Sharpton's do you meet even ocassionally? Also, note what Holder called the "outliers". I would say Sharpton falls in that category many times. But, I don't meet many like him.
I hang out with several people of different backgrounds. I am able to talk with them about race and there is no "Sharptonesque" issue with them. I am not sure whether on a basic day-to-day conversation level, Sharpton is the problem.

Interesting #12, I will guess your answer is no, you don't feel comfortable talking about race. The follow up question is: how many Al Sharpton's do you meet even ocassionally? Also, note what Holder called the "outliers". I would say Sharpton falls in that category many times. But, I don't meet many like him.
I hang out with several people of different backgrounds. I am able to talk with them about race and there is no "Sharptonesque" issue with them. I am not sure whether on a basic day-to-day conversation level, Sharpton is the problem.

Interesting #12, I will guess your answer is no, you don't feel comfortable talking about race. The follow up question is: how many Al Sharpton's do you meet even ocassionally? Also, note what Holder called the "outliers". I would say Sharpton falls in that category many times. But, I don't meet many like him.
I hang out with several people of different backgrounds. I am able to talk with them about race and there is no "Sharptonesque" issue with them. I am not sure whether on a basic day-to-day conversation level, Sharpton is the problem.

Al Sharpton reminds me more of a Giant Sloth than a monkey and Barry looks more like a Bolivian Fruit Bat. I'm just saying. Does this make me a racist?

17 &18: I once tried speaking about racial issues from my (white jewish man) perspective with african american co-workers, all of whom I have socialized with outside of work, and they all called me a racist and no longer talk to me. So, it's not just the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of this world that make it difficult to talk about race.

I declare today to be National Punch a Minority in the Face Day!

Brett Michaels

Is Holder right? Let's see how many people here actually talk about the issue Holder raised. That is the real challenge and Sharpton has nothing to do with it. Will we be snide about the issue, skirt around it, or act as though everything is ok? Sharpton does not infiltrate my everyday life and I am not sure he does yours. This basic everyday life issue is what I understand Holder is getting at. Someone could have used different words, but it is not hard to understand what he said.

Is Holder right? Let's see how many people here actually talk about the issue Holder raised. That is the real challenge and Sharpton has nothing to do with it. Will we be snide about the issue, skirt around it, or act as though everything is ok? Sharpton does not infiltrate my everyday life and I am not sure he does yours. This basic everyday life issue is what I understand Holder is getting at. Someone could have used different words, but it is not hard to understand what he said.

I have no qualms about discussing race. I'll even sing about it:

"Jason loves the little children,
all the little children of the world -
red, yellow, black and white,
I make them scream out in the night,
Jason loves the little children of the world."

I don't care what color people are - they're all the same when the axe falls. More layoffs coming.

Jason Vorhees is racist.

Al "the Walrus" Sharptongue

#21, this shows the depth of the issue of race. But the question remains whether Holder is right. Or better yet, do people care whether he is or not? Could someone say we are cowards as to other issues like abortion, polygamy, sexuality? People have deep disagreements about several issues, politics, religion, abortion, evolution etc. It is difficult to talk about them. People lose friends and family over that sometimes. But does race appear to be bigger? Is it maybe because you can hide your views about almost anything but your can't hide your color? So it begs the question to discuss certain issues with people whom you are certain have certain positions? I think it is a personal choice and there is no need to introduce unnecessary strife relating to discussions about race or any other issues about which people have strong feelings. However, if you have issues with a topic, how do you deal with it with those who have contrary views? Is race any different? See Prof. Suzanna Sherry's article on the Pariah Principle. My civ pro professor. It gives good insights on matters that involve external immutable traits and how it affects our way of thinking and interactions.

There is a guy in my mailroom who is black. I will go down there before lunch and promptly punch him in the face.

Thank you Dr. Zizmore!

I associate with friends from school, neighbors and my kids friends parents. Some of them are of different races. The divisions in this country are more socio-economic than racial. As far as race and economics are related talk to me about that, but don't call me a coward.

Eric Holders upper lip is hairy and racist.

Here's a plan, don't smoke weed, pull your pants up, don't drive a shiny car and make sure your kids do their homework, and well, they could become a lawyer or something, maybe even attorney general or president.

Hmm, I may have to "moderate" you, 28. Will you be walking alone down any dark alleys tonight? If so, could you send me the the street address and time you'll be there? Thank you in advance.

OWWWWCH! Somebody in the elevator just punched me in the face. This country is going to shit.

Guy-Uriel Charles is a prof at Minnesota, not Duke. He'll be moving to Duke in the summer. He must think UMN is a TTT - already trying to rub the name from his CV.

I'm not a coward - I would seriously like to discuss with black people why they feel it necessary to, for no apparent reason, scream out racial epithets like cracker, white devil and whitey at random white people on the streets and subways of NY.

I just punched my African American doorman.

I agree with 29. I'd much sooner hang out with a minority than a poor person. But seriously, I can't take anyone with spinner rims seriously, whether he's (yes, it's usually men with small penii) black, white, or in between.

Re: Iowa Law

Carolyn Jones did not step down to return to teaching; she was forced out because she is incompetent and became an embarrassment to the law school and the University. The law school also needs to (1) get rid of the redundant administrators at the law school. Why does the school need someone in the position of Dean of Civic Engagement? (2) start hiring younger, dynamic, productive faculty, and make a commitment to providing a good, solid legal education; (3) As part of #2, get rid of the legions of do nothing adjuncts – there’s one person there who hasn’t done anything of professional or academic significance in almost 40 years and most of the other people have thin credentials; (4) stop the focus/efforts on the ridiculous diversity agenda, and stop giving full or near full scholarships to people who are ill-prepared for a legal career.

White people don't talk about race because they end up looking either racist or pandering. It's a no-win situation - better to pretend it doesn't exist.

Whites are cowards when it comes to talking about race, I'm guessing thats because there are pretty good odd someone will be offended by any mention of race, and getting fired or sued is something many people cower from...

Of course he makes race an issue -- it's the ONLY reason he got the job!!! what a punk!

Madison didn't write the Bill of Rights, dumbass.

just google "dallas, black hole" and see what the top result is...a lovely story of racism...

Madison didn't write the Bill of Rights, dumbass.

I wonder if anyone has punched Elie in the face yet?

Since when is truth fierce?

What's wrong with being racist?
Freedom of Association people come on. Do you really want the government telling you who you have to hang out with at your own BBQ?

Why is the AG even talking about it?

On the UBS article, Taxes suck and there is nothing patriotic about giving the government money to burn.

-Mad Maddox

Since there seems to be little enthusiasm regarding Attorney General Holder's remarks, some questions to ask yourself in evaluating them:
• If you attend social events other than those sponsored by your employer, how many of the people in attendance come from a background significantly different than yours?
• If you entertain at home on the weekend, how many guests have you invited during the past couple of years who come from a background significantly different than yours?
• If you attend religious services with any regularity, how many of the people in your congregation come from a background significantly different that yours?

Our country is pretty good compared with the rest of the world, and our freedom is certainly worth defending, but we don't spend as much time thinking about history as we might:
• The US armed forces were racially segregated until 1948, when President Truman issued a Presidential executive order requiring that they be integrated.
• It was legal for local school districts in the US to segregate public school attendance by race until 1954, when the US Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board.
• President Eisenhower had to send the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957 to enforce a federal court order to desegregate Little Rock Central High School over the opposition of Governor Orval Faubus and local authorities.
• Congress enacted legislation creating the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice that same year, 1957. It was passed only after supporters overcame a 24-hour filibuster by Sen. Strom Thurmond.
• Congress did not enact legislation prohibiting the obstruction of voter registration or voting on racial grounds until 1960 (PL 86-449, 74 Stat. 86).
• Congress did not enact federal legislation banning racial segregation in schools, public places and employment until the summer of 1964 (PL 88-352, 78 Stat. 241, July 2, 1964). The legislation was passed less than one month after the Ku Klux Klan murdered three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi on June 21, 1964. The three workers, Michael Schwerner, age 24, James Chaney, age 21, and Andrew Goodman, age 20, had gone to MIssissippi in an effort to register African American citizens to vote.
• Congress did not enact comprehensive federal legislation safeguarding the right to vote and prohibiting race-based discrimination in voting until 1965 (42 USC §1973 et seq.). The legislation was passed after police used violence to dissipate a peaceful voting rights demonstration in Selma, Alabama on Sunday, March 7, 1965. President Johnson sent the initial bill to Congress ten days later, on March 17, 1965, although the final version was not passed until August 4, 1965. The March 7 demonstration was led by John Lewis, whose skull was fractured by police officers when they broke up the demonstration. Lewis was later elected to Congress, and currently represents Georgia's 5th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.
• On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He was shot while resting at a local motel after coming to the city in connection with a strike by local sanitation workers, which started after black workers were sent home with no overtime while white workers were kept at work earning overtime during a storm.
• Even after the passage of the federal civil rights laws of 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965, it took decades of litigation to overcome blatant racial discrimination in employment; see, e.g. the facts described by the US Supreme Court in Sheet Metal Workers v. EEOC, 478 U.S. 421 (1986).

Have you ever spent any time reflecting on whether those parts of our national history might mean something a bit different to coworkers who come from a different background than you do? On whether those parts of our history might mean something different to your coworkers' parents, who were children growing up in the 1950s and 1960s; or to your coworkers' grandparents, who were adults trying to vote and send their children to school in the 1950s and 1960s, than they do to your parents or grandparents? Have you ever asked any of your coworkers what they think about any of those things -- or listened to their answers and reflected on them, instead of just expressing your own views in response?

Whatever you think of the economic policies of the current federal administration, has it ever occurred to you that the election of President Obama might mean something a bit different to coworkers who come from families that remember the federal integration of Little Rock High School, the murders of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, the Selma demonstration, the assassination of Dr. King, and the passage of the federal civil rights legislation of 1957, 1960, 1964 and 1965?

Are you really so witless as to imagine that anyone, from any party, not only gets appointed by the President but also confirmed by the US Senate to be the Attorney General of the United States solely by virtue of his race, without any other professional qualifications to speak of? Has it ever occurred to you that Attorney General Holder might know more about US history than you do? Or that he might actually be more intelligent, better educated, more professional, and a better lawyer than you are?

Eric Holder is the coward for accepting the benefits of race-based Affirmative Action policies! If he were truly courageous, he would stand up against such racial preferences!