Support for Black Muslim Minister Louis Farrakhan
As a black physician and university professor, I take strong exception to Prof. Howard H. Kendler’s well-intentioned letter (Aug. 15) regarding Farrakhan. Kendler criticizes Dr. Halford Fairchild for failing “to distinguish between the terms ‘racial difference’ and ‘racial superiority.’ The former neither implies the latter nor does it justify any form of differential social treatment.”
Kendler’s reasoning may prevail in the sacrosanct Halls of Ivy, but in the real world, the genetic theories of Arthur R. Jensen, William B. Shockley and others of their ilk are construed as scientific confirmation of the superiority of white people and the inferiority of blacks.
If the academic approach to “racial differences” were as objective and apolitical as Kendler implies, more people would be informed about melanin (and its counterpart, neuromelanin), a complex protein that is responsible for dark pigment. Some scientists theorize that melanin lowers the incidence of skin cancer and retards aging, while neuromelanin reduces senility and enhances neuro-transmission in the human body.
It is widely known that many blacks suffer from sickle-cell anemia, heart disease and high blood pressure, but the public is generally unaware that most black people benefit from high quantities of melanin.
Such ignorance is caused by the types of scientists cited by Kendler. They would rather dwell on black pathology, and thereby imply genetic inferiority.
WILBERT C. JORDAN, M.D.
Compton
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