"Nation Of Cowards"? No, But...

Was Eric Holder, the first African American to serve as Attorney General, guilty of a poor choice of words when he said that America is "a nation of cowards" [1] when it comes to race? Yes, says Roger Wilkins, history professor at George Mason University and the first African American to be appointed to a senior-level position at the Justice Department during the Johnson administration. But Wilkins agrees that Holder is right that the nation has a lot of unfinished work on racial matters—and the controversy surrounding a recent racist cartoon [2] in the New York Post is just the latest proof.

While some people may disagree with how Holder characterized race relations in the United States, Wilkins says in this interview, "we shouldn't be able to walk away from Holder's thing by saying 'Oh, Jesus, that was really stupid; he shouldn't have said that; he didn't have to do that right away.' But that's wrong. He did it because he's observed something in his lifetime as a black man in America, and he said it and that's why we should be doing what we're doing, having a conversation about it, writing about it."

Wilkins explains why that New York Post cartoon must continue to be denounced "in the strongest possible way." He also explains why he feels that the progressive movement is not doing enough to address continuing racism in America. "I think [the progressive movement] feels it is pure, that it has crossed over to the promised land. ...They think it's over. On the other hand, black people want to say, 'It's not over. Are you kidding me? Let me tell you what happened to me last Thursday.'"

Wilkins, who has also been a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, is a board member of the Campaign for America's Future.