To the Editor:
I am sick and tired of being called a racist. America looks at me and
sees a middle-class white man who wants something done about illegal
immigration and assumes that it must be about race.
What I am actually concerned about is the socioeconomic effects of the
high-density immigration. I am concerned with the complete disregard to
the concept of assimilation and the complete lack of respect being shown
toward what my friends and family have fought and died to protect.
Laws are fair only if all people, despite race, color or creed, are held
to them. The fact that the majority of the people who are in our
country illegally are of color means nothing to me.
This is not a race issue. It is a legal issue, a financial issue, a
respect issue and an issue of pride. Please look beyond my white skin,
stop assuming that I’m racist, and see that this is an issue about
immigration, not race.
James Stewart
Mount Vernon, Wash., May 22, 2010
Note from KBJ: The people who use "racist" as a bludgeon are not capable of being reasoned with. You're wasting your time, Mr Stewart. What these people want is for you and others to deny being racist. I recall hearing of a political campaign in which candidate A wondered aloud whether he should call his opponent, B, a pig fucker. An aide protested that it wasn't true. A replied that it doesn't matter whether it's true; he merely wanted B to deny being a pig fucker.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 