YWC can have a minority leader and be prejudiced

TO THE EDITOR:

We are writing in response to Nikhil Patel’s letter, “From group’s president: YWC isn’t racist, radical” (Sept. 22).He posits that since he is a non-white person, Youth for Western Civilization must not be a racist organization. The argument that racism cannot exist in the organization because their president is not white is flawed.

To be clear, we are not accusing anyone, least of all Mr. Patel, of being racist. In our opinion, racism implies that one group has power over another, so we realize that racism might not be the correct word to use in this case.

However, to imply that one minority cannot be prejudiced against another minority group is inherently illogical and, quite frankly, ignorant. Having one person of color representing your organization does not mean that everything that organization does is devoid of any racial prejudice.

Ultimately, if the members of YWC are racist or prejudiced is less important than what we consider the greater issue: The speakers they choose to engage have regularly been associated with questionable, inflammatory attitudes about race.

We agree with Mr. Patel that there is more to Western civilization than white culture. If YWC truly wants to represent Western civilization, they should broaden their programming to include issues and people outside of the “anti-illegal immigration” set. But, if YWC’s speakers series really represents Western civilization, we’re heading east.


Suba Narasimhan
Graduate Student
Maternal and Child Health

Kate Agnelli
UNC ‘07