Nakasone’s Remarks About Americans

The article about Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone may be getting too close to the truth. Nakasone said American minorities “. . . have pulled down the level of learning in the United States.”

What about the white kid across the street who didn’t finish high school? More than once it has been reported that the Japanese IQ has been increasing while the American IQ is going down. Reasons suggested include nutrition, number of annual days of schooling, teaching efficiency--but never minorities. The scapegoat is a lot closer than the minorities. The enemy is “us.”

Japan talks about a “racially homogeneous” country with its largest minority being only 700,000 Koreans in a population of 120 million. Second- and third-generation Koreans are still being fingerprinted in Japan today.

We are the melting pot. Our strengths and creativity have migrated here. Then complacency sets in. In the United States our strongest economies seem to occur in states with the highest minorities: California, Texas and Florida. The “pure race” argument once a century is about enough. Let’s recognize different cultures and absorb. Ovens aren’t the answer.

THOMAS E. ALLEN

Palm Desert