Dinkins

New York politicians and their supporters never cease to amaze me. Take David Dinkins, the Big Apple’s Democratic nominee and supposed ethnic healer, for instance. According to The Times (Part I, Oct. 9), Dinkins, during a fund raiser in Baldwin Hills, was quoted as saying, “If one person says he will not vote for you because you are black or Jewish, that’s bigotry.” Then Times staffer Cathleen Decker went on to write, “But he insisted that voting for him because he is black was a proper display of racial pride.”

Now I don’t know how the citizens of New York City feel about a candidate grubbing for money 3,000 miles away from his hometown or the influence this money might have on the conduct of city business. But one thing is for sure. Hypocrisy in the name of “racial pride” is a double standard that even New York City’s cast-iron stomach natives should have a hard time digesting.

GARY BASKERVILLE

Pasadena