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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
February 8, 2012
Warren Richey: Why momentous Prop. 8 ruling might not satisfy gay-rights groups
Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
February 7, 2012
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February 6, 2012
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Jeffrey Fleishman: In newly democratic Egypt, tens of democracy activists jailed, to stand trial; their groups are 'threatening the stability of the homeland'
Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
Caroline B. Glick: Obama: Of course I intend to prevent a nuclear holocaust . . . in a few months
Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
The Kosher Gourmet by Joseph Erdos: This mushroom and barley soup has an intense -- almost nutty -- flavor that mixes robust with Middle East. It has creaminess without cream
January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
Feb. 26, 2009
/ 2 Adar 5769
More race talk is the last thing we need
By
Jeff Jacoby
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"In things racial we have always been . . . essentially a nation of cowards" because "average Americans simply do not talk enough with each other about race." Thus spake Attorney General Eric Holder in a speech last week marking Black History Month a speech in which he also bewailed the fact that modern America frequently "does not . . . differ significantly from the country that existed some 50 years ago."
Holder's racial melancholy struck many people as peculiar, inasmuch as he is the first black American to head the Justice Department, and inasmuch as the American president who appointed him a president elected by a healthy margin last November is the most celebrated black man in the world. Was such gloom really called for in a speech marking the first Black History Month of the Obama presidency?
Yet that wasn't the only message to come out of the Obama administration last week.
Though it didn't get the same media attention, an equally high-ranking Cabinet secretary gave a speech for Black History Month that suggested a somewhat different take on America's racial condition one more upbeat and appreciative.
"Race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion," he said, but "in racial terms the country that existed before the civil rights struggle is almost unrecognizable to us today. Separate public facilities, separate entrances, poll taxes, legal discrimination, forced labor, in essence an American apartheid" all of it, he acknowledged, had been relegated by the Civil Rights movement to the ash heap of history. Today, Americans of every color "work with one another, lunch together, and ... socialize with one another," especially during the workweek.
The administration official who delivered those remarks? Attorney General Eric Holder. Both the racial lament and the glad tidings were part of the same speech. The obnoxious line about Americans being "a nation of cowards" drew the headlines, as perhaps it was intended to, but the speech as a whole was inconsistent and incoherent. Perhaps Holder intended to offer a nuanced argument about race in the Age of Obama. What he delivered was a muddle.
Every sensible American knows that racial problems still exist in the United States. But what can justify Holder's belief that the only way to surmount them is to have "frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us?" He has it exactly backward. Harping on old grievances, constantly revisiting past resentments, relentlessly picking at scabs those are a recipe not for social harmony but for social antagonism. To be sure, there are those who have made it their life's work to keep racial umbrage at a constant boil: men like Louis Farrakhan, David Duke, Al Sharpton. But is theirs the sort of "frank conversation" Holder thinks we need more of?
In any event, the notion that Americans can't bring themselves to talk about race is preposterous. Did we not just come through a seemingly endless presidential campaign in which race was a seemingly endless topic of discussion? Wasn't Barack Obama praised to the skies for giving a whole speech on the subject of race? Were Americans reluctant to discuss "things racial," as Holder puts it, when Don Imus slurred the Rutgers women's basketball team? Or when Jeremiah Wright damned the "US of KKK-A?" Or when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans? Or when John Rocker shot his mouth off? Or when three Duke lacrosse players were indicted for rape?
Americans have been jawboning about race for 2 1/2 centuries, and we are in no danger of running out of things to say. More race talk is the last thing we need. As a nation and as individuals, the less race matters to us, the less thought we give it, the more racial progress we will make. Our goal should be not to dwell on "things racial" but to see beyond them.
Just as millions of Americans already do.
In the early 1960s, when Barack Obama's white mother married his black father, there were fewer than 15,000 interracial marriages in the United States. By 1980, there were 650,000. Today, there are nearly 2.3 million. Obama was only a toddler when Martin Luther King dreamed of a nation in which people were judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Day by day, we are becoming that nation.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Jeff Jacoby is a Boston Globe columnist. Comment by clicking here.
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