Unless there's an objective record that can be turned to, the claims of people who haven't spoken to or heard from Allen in all these years will mean nothing.

blah, blah, blah - only whites are racist, blah, blah, blah - only whites can be racist, blah, blah, blah - blacks are powerless less-then-men, blah, blah, blah - i'm a corporate lawyer so i know how bad blacks have it...blah, blah, blah - i'm a text-book quoting rich person who feels bad that i have it so good...

blah, blah, blah...

By virtue of your ability to pick the right parents, you have a leg up on most the rest of the world.

Instead of being grateful for your luck and taking advantage of it, for the last few pages you have you have whined pitilessly about being somekind of victim of black racism.

Somehow us white folks who live in integrated cities and commune with all kinds of people, from all walks of life, don't feel the need to suffer under the oppression of black racism, yet have to listen to the ranting of sad little men who are looking for some excuse to blame their failures or lack of accomplishment or just be liked on the scrouge of black racism.

These are same jerks who screamed when women and minorities benefitted from afirmative actions, as if the divine rights of medicore white men were being violated if they actually had to work for a living.

blah, blah, blah.

You people are shit on a brick funny. I grew up in a poor neighborhood in a rich city, sure I experienced getting called a cracker, or having slurs thrown at me in Cantonese and getting jumped by black people or being called a Nazi, while these things occasionally hurt my feelings, there is no fucking way I would ever compare an asian person calling me names to being killed while working on the railroads or being jumped to knowing most retailers won't hire blacks because they "steal". I used to work retail, one time in a record store, whenever a black person came into the store, all staff was instructed to follow them around by the manager and that the mangager would hire any race but black, even though I knew almost all the employees were stealing. I had many many white managers explain that black people steal too much so we won't hire them, even though in all retail 50 percent of theft is attributed to the low paid employees, no matter what their race. Or seeing the neighborhood divisions in my city because the white people were very clear on which races should live where. Why are the chinese and the italians right next to each other in New York and San Francisco?

How does it feel to live the American dream, have money to buy a house and either watch as all the white people move away because you've "ruined" their property values or that they won't sell you a house at all because your skin is the wrong color?

I have no problems accepting that because I'm white, I can pretty much achieve anything I want as long as I work for it, I can't imagine being a minority and working towards something and being told you can't have it because people either think you're gonna steal or are only there because of affirmative action and don't deserve the job. Or they just won't give it to you cause there are also equally qualified white people to hire too.

I know one guy in my office who is in a high level posistion, made sure all of his hires were black. Some people would complain, then I would remind them that without his hires the entire office would be white and asian so I didn't give a rats ass that he was practicing his own brand of affirmative action.

There is no way in hell that racism against whites from minorities is equal in any way to white racism against minorities. Ohh some name calling and fist fights are really equal to economic disadvantages and decades of oppression.

As for Allen and this article, I don't consider it swift-boating if these people are telling the truth. I am perfectly capable of disregarding the deer head incident, because there is no proof it happened because it came from one person's memory and the other person is dead. I do think someone's history is relevant if they have stated I have never been a racist, then there are people from your past going, oh yes you were jackass.

LeCastor is right.

But this article very much speaks to LACK OF CHARACTER as well as RACISM.

With Allen both lack of character and racism are very much bubbling just beneath the surface and are so strong they spill/spew and explode out of him.

Allen is just another Confederate, Racist and self proclaimed Southern Christian. These corrupt non christians and non americans are rampant in the Republican party and are spreading like a disease upon our nation.

They are an abomination.

le castor: no, i'm not equating anti-black or anti-white racism; i'm pointing out that racism is a thoroughly national problem, often more visible and acute in areas of the country typically identified as 'blue' or 'liberal,' and that social and cultural segregation is often equally (or more) prominent in liberal-friendly places like los angeles. there's no comparing white male reactionary whining to the legacy of slavery, but i take offense at the implication that 'blue' states have some sort of moral high ground on an issue that effects every American, almost every day.

meanteeth: i have no doubt that the 'n' word was frequently used in charlottesville and around UVa in the early seventies. i'm not claiming that racism wasn't a problem at UVa or in Virginia then or now (i think my original letter makes this fairly clear). in fact, UVa made national headlines only a few years ago for an incident in which several fraternity boys were photographed at a halloween party dressed in blackface (two boys dressed as venus & serena williams; another wore an 'uncle sam' costume with blackface and a nametag identifying him as 'uncle sambo')--an isolated incident not reflective of the university culture, but ample evidence that we still have a long way to go.

my point is not that virginia is free of racism, but, rather, that george allen was not converted to racism by moving to Virginia. of course there was racism at UVa in the early seventies--heck, they only started admitting women in 1971!! and anyone who has studied the history of Mr. J's academical village (as i did, while working as a graduate assistant in the alderman library archives) knows that UVa's stellar national reputation came about largely due to research and diversity initiatives instituted in the early '70s by the late dr. edgar shannon--who, incidentally, was also the first university president to publically condemn the vietnam war. courageous, visionary, progressive educators like dr. shannon have made virginia a much more hospitable place to live and study. unfortunately, it's also still home to a small percentage of racist idiots--just like the other 49 states.