Letter: No evidence to support editorial's claims

Posted 8/26/20

To the editor:

The writer of the August 19th editorial makes several claims without providing supporting evidence. One claim is that 98 percent of us do not condone racism, especially if it is …

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Letter: No evidence to support editorial's claims

Posted

To the editor:

The writer of the August 19th editorial makes several claims without providing supporting evidence. One claim is that 98 percent of us do not condone racism, especially if it is overt, ugly, and disgusting. This statement confuses me. Should I infer from it your belief that only overt racism is ugly, and disgusting; or that you understand that there are other forms of racism that may also be (or may not be) ugly and disgusting; or that more people may condone these other forms of racism? In addition, how do you know that 98 percent of us do not condone overt racism? Some would argue that a person who supports Donald Trump is condoning racism. Some believe that a person who doesn’t speak up in the face of a racist slur is condoning it.

I believe that all kinds of racism are ugly. The overt racism you refer to is more accurately described as racism in the personal / interpersonal realm. Personal racism refers to thoughts and beliefs: for example, an individual who believes in white supremacy, or that all People-of-Color have characteristics intrinsic to their race. Such thoughts don’t have to be expressed. An example of interpersonal racism is shouting the N-word at a neighbor. In addition, there is also cultural, institutional, and systemic racism.

But before we tackle these other forms of racism, which I will not do here, I think your editorial board, and the town as a whole, needs a common definition of racism. I suggest that we hold our discussions using the definition of racism suggested by Ibram X. Kendi, a noted race-theory scholar. He defines as racist any policy or action that sustains or creates inequity among groups. Non-racist thoughts, policies, and actions would be those that support and increase equity among groups. Next we would have to define equity, bias, prejudice, discrimination, privilege, and many other terms.

Once we have agreed on a common vocabulary, then we can discuss whether or not Barrington is a racist town. And if we decide that it is, then we can discuss what to do about it.

Trinki Brueckner

Barrington

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Mike Rego has worked at East Bay Newspapers since 2001, helping the company launch The Westport Shorelines. He soon after became a Sports Editor, spending the next 10-plus years in that role before taking over as editor of The East Providence Post in February of 2012. To contact Mike about The Post or to submit information, suggest story ideas or photo opportunities, etc. in East Providence, email mrego@eastbaymediagroup.com.