Readers React: Why freedom is an illusion unless we have equality

To the editor: One letter writer stated that “equality is impossible to achieve, whereas freedom is possible if a person makes good decisions.”

I hope that after he read his letter in the paper, he looked right to see the column, “A way to address implicit bias?” which underscores inequality in law enforcement.

I also hope he looked at the front page and read about the clique of tattooed Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies being investigated by the FBI, including deputies who target minorities. He can review the history of slave patrols, chain gangs in the South, Jim Crow and the civil rights era to draw a direct line to mass incarceration today.

The letter writer may want to read about inequality in education, employment, banking and housing for minorities in America too.

Without equality you cannot have freedom, and our nation was founded by men who decided that indigenous peoples and bodies stolen from Africa were not equal and deserved no freedoms. In a society built on supremacy, freedom is an illusion.

Bethia Sheean-Wallace, Fullerton

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