Updated

As you know, Starbucks boss, Howard Schultz, wants to talk race with customers and it's not who do you like in Fifth at Belmont.

It's such bad idea that even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who really likes Schultz thinks it could probably lead to fights. Kareem says Schultz is brave, but it's not brave to force employees to chat up potentially unstable strangers about race.

Schultz puts his workers in a dangerous position, one that he would never assume for himself. It's like FNC telling me that after "The Five" I have to pull a shift at Taco Bell. I would give everyone E. coli -- on purpose.

And so, Eric Holder was actually right about cowardice and race, just wrong on who the cowards are. The cowards are those who won't admit that widespread victim status hurts minorities; that smearing everyone as subconsciously racist invites corrosive division; and that mocking other black voices -- be they Juan Williams, Walter Williams, Shelby Steele or Thomas Sowell -- is a sign of weakness; and that white liberals' lowered expectations hurts blacks.

Now, that's the dialogue we should have. But it's not the one Schultz wants. The only one he wants starts and ends with "Wow, you're so brave Mr. Schultz." Because this is all about his ego which only comes in one size: vente.