TO THE EDITOR:
Rarely have I read an column which exudes such fierce insensitivity and lack of understanding as Craig Warner's column, "Politics Will Not Eradicate Racism" (Nov. 7).
Warner enthusiastically mentions that "only" 25 percent of white America believes that African-Americans have inferior intellectual ability. Not only does Warner assert that this fact demonstrates that racism is no longer a major problem in the United States; he insists that blacks are to blame for the discrimination against them.
Warner justifies the refusal of taxi cab drivers to pick up black teenagers for fear of being robbed. The cab drivers, he insists, have every right to believe they are more likely to be robbed by blacks than by whites. Police officers who engage in racial profiling employ the same disturbing logic of "rational discrimination," insisting that black drivers are more likely to possess drugs than white drivers.
Denying rights to an entire class of people based on the real or perceived impropriety by a small number of individuals within that class is the essence of discrimination. Defending "rational" discrimination merely accentuates the prejudices that black Americans still face every day. For those who think racism no longer exists in America, there is a reminder in every Tuesday's DTH.
Michael Songer
Junior
Political Science
