Of Bill Minor, Eric Holder, and All Us Cowards

We're all cowards when it comes to a conversation about race, says the Attorney General.

Nobody wants to talk about it, he says. When he says nobody, I assume he means, much like his boss, something else. See, "Nobody" is code for "none of you people." Eric Holder and many with beliefs like him desperately want to have a conversation about race. But the Attorney General and I define conversation differently.

Which brings me to the dinosaur of Mississippi political writers, the somewhat-lucid Bill Minor.

His columns recently have been the typical Minor Race Columns, which blame white, conservative Mississippians for just about every racial problem (and that's being kind-usually, he blames us for problems outside the state too) in the state while giving a pass to anyone of his political inclinations. He ignores fellow fossil David Jordan, a Senator from the Delta, who recently remarked that voter ID was only supported by those whose ancestors owned slaves, and others (white and black) of a similar ideological bent.

Because of this, I figured out what General Holder's idea of a conversation about race is.

See, the Eric Holders of the world, along with the Bill Minors, when he's not chasing down Karl Rove in seedy Biloxi parking garages, get to tell all of us why we're evil racists, and we get to sit there and listen to them. That's what a conversation with Eric Holder and Bill Minor would be like.

And frankly, its a conversation we've been having for a long time. See, the only reason Eric Holder thinks we're 'cowards' for not incessantly talking about race is because most of us, when its brought up, know the lecture is coming. So pardon us regular, non-enlightened folk, General Holder and Mr. Minor, for wanting to bow out. I finished taking lectures when the degree hit my hand. Lectures are for little children who screw up and people who don't know better. I'm neither.