Letters to the Editor
Allene Swienckowski
Published Letters: 183 Editor's Choice: 10
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Black History and the State of Racism in America
[Read the article: Race matters]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's always interesting for me to read articles written by black authors. This one was of no partocular interest other than I wanted to read how Ms. Dickerson handled the issue of Black History month after reading one of her previous articles that requwsted O.J. Simpson to just kill himself. So, to begin, Ms. Dickerson, I apologize for thinking that you were a white woman.
But I am constantly amazed by all of the people, both black and white, who feel that black people are different from whites and that all blacks are linked, mysteriously, by our collective blackness. The biggest thing that eclispes my world is that most whites think that all black people get along with one another just because they are black.
To be sure, I am probably a few decades older than Ms. Dickerson. In other words I was educated and employed long before Affirmative Action. The state of affairs for blacks hasn't changed much since the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. Middle class and well to do blacks, will cross the street to avoid confrontation with a crowd of young black males on the street. Just like middle class whites will cross the street to avoid confrontations with low class, poor white male youths. Hmmm... seems like both groups respons the same in similar circumstances. The point is: we are all individuals; and by that I mean everyone. There isn't a blueprint that lays out how a white person should act anymore than there is a blueprint that states all blacks have rhythm.
For the young white woman who is involved in a bi-racial relationship: keep your chin up kid. My husband and I married when marriage between blacks and whites was illegal in a majority of the states. We have traveled over much of the United States and we have never been insulted because of our relationship whether we were in a small country town, or the Big Apple. But maybe an old axiom is at play and not just our age: white guys can choose to be with women of color whereas white women might still suffer censure from white males?
I think a way for change might happen if more media outlets realized that black contributors are just as talented and can grasp what entertains audiences and not just black folks and any talented white person. It's strange how it's okay for a white person to write about a black person's experience, yet the media doesn't accept that black can percieve what the white experience is in quite the same way.
My father told me something fifty years ago and his words will anger both blacks and whites: "Black people are just carbon copies of white people." And if you take a breath and pause to reflect for just a second, I'm certain you'll recognize the truth in his words.
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Stretching Reality or Maybe Just Plain Lies
[Read the article: Housing dominoes continue to fall]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Mr. Leonard...you should truly be ashamed of yourself. Once again you are preaching inevitbale doom and destruction the the real estate market. To bolster your hype you mention that the market is obviously breaking down because a mortgage firm in California shutdown unceremoniously this past week while leaving eight hundred needy employees jobless. If the mortgage company was say...Countrywide or Bank of America or Wells Fargo, in other words any of the major banks, if any of these institutions had closed their real estate mortgage divisions, then perhaps we should all become a bit concerned about the failing real estate market. But Mr. Leonard, pleeze!~ Touting the unexplained demise of a sub-prime lender as an indication of the basic health of the real estate market is more than disingenious based soley on recent stories about sub-prime lenders in several national newspapers. I would venture to say that many sub-prime lenders whould also positively benefit the housing market by abandoning their teepees and fadng into dusk, or at the very least, provide a service to their at risk borrowers who are routinely economically raped by this ravenous, insatiable, heartless industry by ceasing to exist.
Mr. Leonard, please realize that you and all of the other journalists who have been prophesizing the burst of the real estate bubble over the last three years are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Get over yourself and let the real estate market rise and fall, based on its inherent demands rather than the prediction of armchair experts called journalists who need a sensational story to create fear and turmoil in a country already rife with journalistic crystal ball interpretations instead of just the facts.