Racism in the United States

* Re “Reviving a Resort’s Racial Pain,” Jan. 18.

Wake up, America! How many other hate-filled and atrocious “pranks” have to be performed before people face the truth? White supremacy groups, as well as unorganized individual bigots are still rampant in our society. They’re just underground.

I am a white American married to a Pakistani man, and I have seen and experienced the intolerance myself. There are times when I take walks in my small town dressed in clothes from his homeland. While on these walks, I am bombarded with racial slurs and menacing behavior, usually from the under-30 set. Some of these morons call out, “Why don’t you go back to your own country!”

While I’m dressed in American clothes, I am accepted as one of their own and I am not heckled or bothered in the least bit.

To pretend that the episodes that I have described or the hate prank in Palm Springs are isolated incidents is to have one’s head in the sand. This menacing mind-set of our youth is nourished and fueled every day in houses all across America with hate, illusions of grandeur and Hitler-esque intolerance.

If we never admit that there is a problem, how will we ever fix it?

MARIAM ABBAS

Moorpark