Stereotypes and misinformation
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To the editor:
A few days ago I had the misfortune of overhearing two middle aged men using extremely racist comments to describe an African-American professional athlete. This is a mind-set built on inherited stereotypes and misinformation, regardless of the geographical location. Martin Luther King once said, “Ever since the birth of our nation while America has had a schizophrenic personality on the question of race.”
America’s contradictions when it comes to racism/slavery are staggering to say the least. Starting with our first President, George Washington who owned 20-30 slaves (although did leave in his last will/testament, that after the death of him and his wife the slaves were to be set free) yet left England because of oppression! Thomas Jefferson was said to have owned around 120 slaves as well. Some critics may try and argue that it was common to own slaves, yet our second President John Adams wanted nothing to do with slavery. President Woodrow Wilson, a highly educated man, had a highly racist film (Dixon’s, Birth of a Nation) screened at the White House in 1915.
Unfortunately, African-Americans are still being targeted in our culture’s media today. President Obama was caricatured as a monkey several times and his wife Michelle was described as “an ape in heels” by the Mayor of a West Virginia city. Bigotry is not acceptable anywhere, or from anyone! We must try to see Christ in everyone we meet, regardless of color. I see it every time I drive around town and see a nativity set with Mary, Jesus, and Joseph portrayed as Caucasians. This is a fallacy, a figment of the white man’s imagination, as there was not a white man to be found in that region 2,000 years ago! Education and action are the keys. God Bless us all.
In Christ the Rebel
Adam B. Freeman
Catholic Personalist
Mount Ayr
Adam Freeman must be very young.
“President Woodrow Wilson, a highly educated man, had a highly racist film (Dixon’s, Birth of a Nation) screened at the White House in 1915.”
Watching a film young Adam thinks is racist (wonder if he ever watched the film) makes you a racist? I hope he is not the product of My Ayr schools. I am in the camp of those who think Wilson was one of the three worst US Presidents…..but watching a film, even if it was racist, does not make Wilson or anyone else a racist.
The mayor of a small W.VA town says something Adam finds racist…..is this the best proof he can come up with to indict the US as a racist country or a country where blacks are targeted by the media?
Education may indeed be a key…….and Adam Freeman needs to find this key, especially the classes dealing with logic and history.