Gregory D.

Lee

Read Greg's bio and previous columns here

February 27, 2009

Eric Holder’s Right: Too Many Cowardly White People

To celebrate “Black History Month,” Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to a group of Department of Justice employees and said that America is “essentially a nation of cowards” when it came to race relations. He was obviously speaking about white people, and I have to admit that I agree with him.

What do you expect from white people who, for most of their adult lives, have been subjected to non-stop reminders about how blacks were victimized as slaves by whites, and how blacks have been subjected to racism ever since the Emancipation Proclamation? Americans have been taught by the political left that only whites are racists, and it’s impossible for blacks, or any other minority for that matter, to be racists.

Every interaction whites have at their workplace with black peers, subordinates or superiors is a risk they take of being labeled a “racist.” I submit Jimmy the Greek as just one of many examples of white men who have said or done something that offended hyper-sensitive blacks. Jimmy told a television reporter that in the days of slavery, blacks were bred to have superior physical strength for hard work in the fields. That was the end of his career as a sports analyst for CBS, despite his statement being true.

Whites can be labeled racists for virtually everything they say, write or do. I’m sure I’ll get hate e-mails from people with a chip on their shoulder that will view me as a racist because of this column. Take Rev. Al Sharpton, who has a chip on his shoulder larger then a California redwood tree. He sees racism at every opportunity. He was last offended by a political cartoon that appeared in the New York Post. Connecticut police officers killed a chimpanzee that went berserk after attacking its owner’s friend. The cartoon depicts two police officers shooting a chimpanzee, and one of the officers remark that someone else will have to write the stimulus bill. Rev. Sharpton, of course, immediately called the political cartoon racist because equating blacks to monkeys is an old racial stereotype, and the president is black.

Someone needs to tell the Reverend that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wrote the bill, not the president. Speaker Pelosi was not offended, as far as I know.

What the Attorney General doesn’t realize or won’t admit is that most whites have been discriminated against by government and liberal universities for decades under the guise of “affirmative action.” I would suspect that AG Holder has been the beneficiary of favoritism simply because he’s black. Where he has routinely received preferential treatment, whites have endured endemic discrimination because of government policies allegedly designed to “even the playing field.” In light of whites being passed over for many years in the field of college and professional/graduate school admissions, employment and promotion, in favor of lesser qualified blacks, do you blame them for not wanting to snuggle up to the very people who are the direct cause of their discrimination?

When I attended college in the mid-1970s, I got into a lively debate with a black female sociology instructor about affirmative action. I maintained it was reverse discrimination against whites, and she justified the practice due to past discrimination against blacks. She eventually conceded my point, and to my surprise said, “If whitey’s stupid enough to let blacks get away with it (affirmative action favoritism), then you can’t blame blacks for taking advantage of it.” How right she is. She revealed the dirty little secret blacks have known for years: Affirmative action is blatant discrimination against whites, but liberal white guilt over slavery and racism in the mid-20^th Century has allowed it to continue and expand for generations.

Barack Obama’s election as our nation’s first black president, and his subsequent appointment of the nation’s first black attorney general, has created a dilemma for black race baiters. How do you justify continuing affirmative action programs when you have a black president? Everyone but them realizes that even if every black in America, registered to vote or not, voted for President Obama, he would not have won the election without the support of whites. So where’s the discrimination?

President Obama’s election should bring the end to affirmative action policies. Only then will whites regain their courage to mingle with other races without fear of being called racists. Can’t we all just get along?

Gregory D. Lee is a nationally syndicated columnist for North Star Writers Group. He can be reached through his web site: www.gregorydlee.com.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

This is Column # GL066. Request permission to publish here.