Editor,

You ran an editorial by Dr. Harold Pease concerning white race baiting within the Democratic Party that was so intellectually dishonest that I had just to respond.  Virtually every point the good doctor made was specious in the extreme.

Since he holds a Ph.D in history and political science, I can only believe it was deliberate.  To attack each point would require an editorial article equivalent to the original. So, I will address the core of the argument.

Holding white people for the legacies of slavery, segregation, the traditional discrimination against immigrants is not race baiting.  It is a historical perspective that addresses the persistence of institutional and de facto racism in the present.

To answer the doctor directly, yes, we must be responsible for the moral errors of the past in order to address the present problem.  Dr. Pease ironically demonstrates the immediate racist assumption of white immunity.

White people are not supposed to be held responsible for any condition of racism; past, present or future.  This is why adolescents of color are gunned down by police and common citizens alike with no consequence to the killers.  This is why blacks and Hispanics are sent to prison for the same crimes that whites will receive probation, community service and therapy.

It is critical to understand the unchallenged assumptions of racism that originally operated the institutions and how they were adapted and, at some level, still survive to affect our lives.

Hyper-sensitivity to criticism of any sort of the past or present and insisting on a white-washed mythical history is a product of white fragility that is harmful to our progress in the continuing development of a moral, democratic and very American character.  It also is an insult to the many whites who took great risks and made sacrifices, up to and including their lives, to create a democratic society that includes all people.

John M. Flagler

Alfred