Divisive Comments
Prof. Melvin Oliver writes, “In a state where the future belongs to children of color†(Commentary, July 28).
Oliver is correct; California will one day no longer be a white-ajority state. To make this exciting future harmonious and all-embracing, we need to point out racism when it exists, even when it’s dished out by traditionally discriminated groups.
I feel it’s insensitive, exclusionary and even racist to say the “future belongs to children of color.†So it also doesn’t belong to white kids?
Comments like this make some, perhaps many, white people feel defensive and angry. Can you imagine the comments that would follow if a Californian wrote “the future belongs to white children� Even if said in Montana? To put it simply, comments such as these, no matter what group writes them, separate us and certainly do not bring us together. We all need to be more sensitive for this multiethnic society to thrive.
MIKE DEREZIN
Los Angeles
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