SCLC will be 'relevant' as long as racism 'prevalent' in Georgia
Editor:
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Re the Dec. 7 editorial, "Want Better Relations? Grow up":
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference will be relevant in my birth state of Georgia as long as racism remains prevalent in Georgia. And your publication's refusal to call the John Deere noose incident what it was - a thuggish, racial threat - only enables the racism to continue.
But then again, words like "thug" are reserved for blacks who misbehave. White wrongs against blacks are historically described as "pranks," or "slights," making the abuses more easily forgivable. After all, what's the best lie you can tell? A white lie, of course. And you can take bets on who will be the first to call the implied lynching just an "isolated incident."
Well, throw in one more of these "isolated" incidents (Jena, La.) and you've got a trend. That's what your editorial, a sad excuse for a purveyor of racial enlightenment, fails to address. Thank God the SCLC did.
And to invoke President-elect Barack Obama's name like he was some friend of yours is yet another take on an age-old racial sleight of hand. Georgia did not vote for Obama. It voted "conservative." And what does that word mean, racially speaking, that is? And I'll go out on a very sturdy limb and guess that your paper did not endorse Obama, either. Obama never said threatening black people with nooses was an acceptable "prank." You only use Obama's message of unity to deny the shameful fact that racism still thrives.
And it's the same reason a Columbia County court dismissed the case; that is, when it comes to racism, try to keep it out of sight and out of mind. But keep in mind that Georgia is still a state with a criminal justice system aimed at filling its prisons disproportionately with blacks; still a state with a voter ID system aimed at suppressing the black vote; and still a state with too many propaganda sheets masquerading as newspapers which long ago gave up their calling as advocates for justice.
Those of us who still believe in standing up for justice will continue to support advocates of justice, like the SCLC.
Don Thomas
Ontario, Canada