We Are A Nation Of Cowards And Are Not Ashamed

February 26th, 2009 | By Sonnie Johnson

The First Black Attorney General Eric Holder stood in front of reporters and called America, “a nation of cowards” when it comes to talking about race.

Rarely do I agree any Democrat but I’m half-way there on this one. I’d make a few changes though. He could’ve said, “We are a nation of cowards when it comes to being broke.” I’d agree. Or he should have said, “We are a nation of cowards hiding behind victimization,” when it comes to race.

Let’s deal with one at a time

Race

I think about the Stars that grace the Billboard charts, Magazines, and television, and we are represented. Not always in the best light, will the real hip-hop please stand up, but we are there. Now, we even have a black face in the White House.

All that means nothing. We can’t have a civilized conversation amongst ourselves without turning it into something ugly. How can we have the conversation on a National level?

When I bring up “black issues”, I’m assaulted because I don’t place blame elsewhere. Even if I give every concession that “the white man” is the cause and root of all our problems, I can never get passed that. Yes, that evil man did it, but what do we do next.

“We make them pay.”

O.K. while we are waiting on them to pay, because it’ll never happen, what do we do in the mean time.

“We make sure everyone knows that they are responsible.”

O.K. but what do we do to better ourselves in the mean time. Why is our entire existence based on what “they” do or don’t do. Don’t we get to make some choices instead of waiting on “them”?

As individuals, most of us have made a choice. We work, raise our families, and handle the stress of it all with pain grimaced through a smile. Life isn’t always fair, but we keep going. But as a collective, we have stopped moving forward. We are patiently waiting for some invisible “white person” to say they are sorry and some how “pouf” away our problems.

Problems we have created waiting. And that’s the problem. We allowed criminals to run our streets with no accountability. We don’t let snitches in and out of our communities. If we stuck together with the same strength towards gangs and dealers, we could police our own streets.

Isn’t that what we crave. To be the big man on the block. How come the big man never wants to create jobs with health care and retirement? And if these are the things missing in our communities, why don’t we give acceptance to the richer people who do?

Why would I give praise to a “white person”? Who says they are white. Russell Simmons, Oprah, Blah Blah Blah I could go on and on, but it would be fruitless. Why?

Because they are surrounded by people afraid to call them on it. A black rapper come out publicly for McCain, career suicide. Yet, AFTER the election Scarface came out and said he voted for McCain, nice and quiet like. Those who disagree with Obama, fear the backlash of a collective of black people stuck and stagnate. The collective is the mob and no one wants to be on the wrong side.

Then you have white people without a racist bone in their body to afraid to stand up. A black politicain can come out and race bait at his choosing but a white politician better watch his words.

We are such a Nation of Cowards

If you think race was bad, Income level is even worse

All my people who have ever been broke and made it out, our time is coming. We all want to look back and remember how good or bad our childhood was. If you were broke, whether it was good or bad, you learned a few tricks of the trade.

You know how to turn one chicken into three dinners and that experience is invaluable. The cowardice of which I speak won’t come from us. It will come from those who had everything handed to them on a silver tray, those that got it the easy way and don’t know how to maintain it, and those who wanted to take short cuts to get to their destination faster.

They will be the ones finding it hard to get assistance because they stomped on so many people along the way. They will waste time worrying about what they lost and not what they still have. They are the one’s clamouring to spend now because they don’t want to suffer.

They are cowards. Being broke isn’t fun, but it is manageable. It takes strength to realize what is necessary and what is not. If I don’t want my daughter to worry about college, I can’t buy a new dress now. How trifling would I be if I bought a new dress in hopes of meeting a rich man to pay for college for her?

Not only trifling, I would be a coward. And through all this, my daughter would be watching. How could I explain?

They say this financial crisis will change the face of Governments all over the world. Once we were the people willing to sacrifice ourselves for our country. Now we will sacrifice our country for ourselves. Is that not the very definition of Coward.