To the Editor:
Re “No, It’s Not About Race,” by David Brooks (column, Sept. 18):
After reading Mr. Brooks’s argument that the incivility in the capital is driven by populism and not racism, I can only come to the conclusion that he is turning a blind eye—in this instance, a color-blind eye—to the situation.
In denying the role of racism in fomenting the rash of anti-big-government and anti-Obama protests, he cites our long history of populism, as well as Jeffersonian limited-government policies and the Jacksonian movement of “plain people against the cosmopolitan elites.”
Ironically, by invoking the names of Jefferson and Jackson, he calls attention to two of our nation’s leaders most identified with racism—one who benefited directly from slavery and one whose purge of native people from their lands opened the doors to unchecked American expansionism in the West.
Moreover, in his outline and glorification of populist movements throughout our country’s history, Mr. Brooks doesn’t mention the connection between racism and populism. The two do not stand in isolation.
Historically, racism has served as the underlying thread that has sown our populist movements—and it continues to do so today.
Angela West Blank
Middleton, Wis., Sept. 18, 2009
Note from KBJ: A racist is not someone who criticizes someone of a different race but someone who employs a double standard. Those who say that criticism of President Obama is racist are assuming that if all else but the president's race were equal, there would be less criticism. What is the evidence for this? There is no doubt in my mind that if John Kerry were doing everything Barack Obama is doing, the criticism would be the same. Seeing racism everywhere is a symptom of a feeble mind.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 