Atty. Gen. Eric Holder wanted to light a fire under America on the touchy-touchy subject of race. Apparently the president didn’t want that much fire. Will the president try to tamp down future comments, and if so, will it impact Holder’s independence? One big concern during confirmation was that Holder might not exercise his independence in relation to the president. We’ll see how that goes.
By HELENE COOPER
New York Times
WASHINGTON – President Obama has chided his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., for describing America as a “nation of cowards” when discussing race, wading into a tumult that flared over Mr. Holder’s indictment of the way this country talks about ethnicity.
“I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” Mr. Obama said in a mild rebuke from America’s first black president to its first black attorney general.
In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, the president said that despite Mr. Holder’s choice of words, he had a point.
“We’re oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there’s some sort of racial flare-up or conflict,” he said, adding, “We could probably be more constructive in facing up to sort of the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination.”
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