COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : Is Spike Lee’s Racial Preference Equality?

Although I consider myself a liberal (gasp!) and have been involved in the civil rights movement since I was a college kid at the University of Florida in 1961, I fail to understand why, when someone prominent in the black community issues a totally outrageous and racist statement, flocks of apologists suddenly come out of the woodwork.

When Sister Souljah and Ice-T seemingly encourage the killing of white civilians and police, we are told that it was taken out of context. When Louis Farrakhan calls Judaism “a gutter religion,” we are told he’s just a hothead.

Where does it end? I suppose if Lee can demand that only black journalists can talk to him about “Malcolm X,” then Saddam Hussein can demand that only journalists who practice Islam can talk to him. Likewise Yassir Arafat could bar Jews because many support Israel and Jimmy Swaggart could do the same because Jews, not believing in Jesus Christ, could not possibly understand what it means to be a Christian.

I wouldn’t give a hoot for any newspaper editor or TV news director who would acquiesce to such preconditions for access to a public figure, especially when they’re based on the color of the reporter’s skin.

While I agree that news organizations and other institutions in the United States have a long and dreary history of racism and sexism, curing those ills will not be accomplished by doing unto others what has been done to you.

ARTHUR A. LORD, Director

Special News Operations

NBC-TV, Burbank