Mr. Eric Holder, the first black Attorney General of the United States of America, described us as a nation of cowards on racial matters. I first saw this reported yesterday, February 18, 2009, in a lead article on Yahoo News. Today it had disappeared from the Yahoo frontpage. Likewise, I did not find it on the front pages of websites of other news networks. I found it on page 4A of today’s issue of USA Today.
Mr. Holder’s comments seemed highly controversial, so I expected to see lots of comment about them in today’s news media. The fact that I had to search through today’s issue of USA Today to find the article it ran suggests to me the news media are trying to bury this story. If so, maybe we are cowards when it comes to discussing racial matters.
Please note that I did see a report of a “conservative push back” that was posted on CBS Political News Hotsheet at 2:43 pm today. According to this report, political conservatives are calling Mr. holder’s comments incendiary. I was expecting more reports of this kind and others that seek to validate his views. Maybe we will these over the next several days.
When I saw the report of Mr. Holder’s accusation, I recalled that when we discussed the effects of racial bias in voting for political candidates on HEDIR during the months leading up to the November 2008 national election there would be a rash of unsubscribe messages sent to all subscribers to the HEDIR list service. My perception was that those unsubscribing in this public manner were announcing their discomfort with discussion of racial matters. If my impression is correct, maybe Mr. Holder’s accusation applies to some health educators. One would think that professionals trained in building community coalitions would be comfortable with discussing all kinds of controversial topics. Is it possible that this is not universally true?
Kelly House
rodneybbowden
donchaney
bethchaney
billcissell
karllarson
Jody Early
Joan Cowdery
Hey Bill, I'd say since there are no comments that the discussion of race is taboo; controversial or not, many would like to believe we have long past the days of Bull Connor and other overt and reprehensible behaviors; however, I would argue that racism and prejudice have gone underground. One way of examining this concept is through the Project Implicit. Check it out (if you dare) at: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
Michael,
Thanks much for posting a comment in response to my blog. I am attempting to respond to your challenge. I visited the Porject Implicit website and began to participate in the research project. The program froze while I was responding to the second scenario. Hopefully, we will work our the technivcal problem and I can complete it.
I found the two scenarios to be typical challenges to adults trying to guide young people in sexual behavior. My reactions to the gay experience of the teenage boy was that it should be treated as the parents would treat sexual behavior between a son and his girlfriend. My reaction to the scenario of the teen boy and girl showing affection in conflict with school policy was that the punishment was too harse. Making an example of the couple for the mild form of violation described is disproportionate to the offens. I take this attitude as a former principal and vice principal (in charge of discipline).