Racism Still Lurks in the Language

The reference to a “tall, all-American blond” (“Dates That Click,” Feb. 13) illustrates just how pervasive (unconscious) racism is in our belief system and, therefore, our language. Indeed, people of color are more likely to have been on this continent far longer than many European immigrants. Asians were brought here to lay the rails upon which America’s first trains traveled; America was built on the backs of African Americans; Mexican Americans used to own the very land we now inhabit; and the spirituality and reverence for life of Native Americans have, of late, become quite popular among those of European descent.

Yet none of these Americans is referred to as all-American because we just don’t get it that we are all Americans.

--MARJORIE LORING

Newbury Park