From PC to RC
I must say I was impressed by your recent church/religion features, which I found to be very thorough and thought-provoking. However, I was disappointed to see the Lord's name used improperly on the cover of your Aug. 10 edition.
Why is it that we take such care not to offend so many groups and organizations, but when it comes to offending God (and Christians) by using the Lord's name in vain—and breaking one of His commandments—it doesn't seem to faze us?
Could you please be more considerate when choosing your words? I would appreciate it, and I have a feeling many other readers would, too.
Karen Pierce
Alcoa
Simply Save Us
I was haunted by the series of "I remember..."s that opened Attica Scott's Color Conscious column (Vol. 10, No. 32). I am a middle-aged white man and I remember unconsciously (or subconsciously) committing verbal acts of racism against African-Americans from so early an age that it's hard to pin it down. I know I did it once before I was in kindergarten, possibly 4 years old. It takes soul searching to recognize such behavior and constant vigilance to avoid it.
I salute the efforts of the activist organizations Ms. Scott cited, and do not disagree with her foundational arguments. Racism is without doubt institutionalized in the United States today. Our founding fathers bequeathed us a legacy of racism when they wrote the Constitution, delineating in crisp, almost poetic language the framework of rights and freedoms of all people. All free people.
That our remarkably free country was founded amid open acknowledgment of slavery as an institution is one of the great ironies of history. All of our founding fathers at least acquiesced in the generalization that non-whites aren't really people. In making their collective peace with this tremendous injustice, they gave us racism as an institution. While great progress has been made in shrinking that monster, it has not been slain. It remains.
Having acknowledged these facts, I must say that I was shocked to find Ms. Scott every bit as willing as the founding fathers to accommodate herself to grossly unjust statements in expeditious pursuit of her ends. I feel quite certain that many of the founding fathers knew better, but went along for the sake of expediency. The United States had to present a united front, and forcing the issue of abolishing slavery would have driven the southern states out of the fold. They knew what they were doing was wrong, but felt that it was necessary. Ms. Scott doesn't seem to realize that she's wrong about certain things.
To state that only institutional racism counts as racism is foolish. To follow with the statement that therefore only white people can possibly be guilty of racism is nothing short of outrageous. No one—least of all the minority members of our community—is done any favors by making such absurdly narrow-minded and short-sighted observations.
Not content with the injustice done by those statements. Ms. Scott proceeds to state unequivocally that all white people are racists (not in so many words, but an elementary understanding of logic is enough to add up her statements to mean just that exactly). She said that most white people will say they aren't racists. Quoting her here: "These are the passive racists..."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but all white people who claim not to be racist (passive racists according to Ms. Scott) and all other white people (presumably those who openly admit being racist) add up to all white people period. Ergo, all white people are racist, according to the statements of the enlightened Ms. Scott.
It is ironic that in an otherwise well-written essay, Ms. Scott commits the very offense she is speaking out against: unconscious or subconscious racism. She tars all white people with the same broad brush, saying they have a certain attribute (racist thinking) simply because of who and what they are. And she immunizes all African Americans from such thinking simply because of who and what they are. Such reasoning is itself racist. God save us all from such enlightenment.
Timothy Wolfe
Knoxville
A Carol by Any Other Name...
As an actor, I have often thought about changing my name. (I actually did it for a while when I lived in New York but kept forgetting that it was me when my "name" was called at auditions...too confusing!). Reading the cast listed for Meter Man [Metro Pulse Vol. 10 No. 35] I found that someone had given me a new name, Carol Jenkins. Could this be a sign that I should once again consider changing my name?
There was an actor in New York who consulted a numerologist and was told to add an extra 'e' to his name...he became Steeve, and landed one of the leads in La Cage Aux Folles. Maybe if my last name was Jenkins, I would have gotten that two-liner I auditioned for in Patch Adams a couple of years ago!
Hmmm....something to think about (anyone out there know numerology?)...but for now I think I'll just keep my own name...
Carol Goans
Knoxville
Ed. Note: Oops. We are truly sorry, or at least we were when we pulled the "Jenkins" out of the air.
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