The Racist Treatment of Boxer Jack Johnson

Re “Shame on Us,” editorial, Jan. 14: No, I will not share the shame you impute in your editorial. It is your mea culpa, not mine. Years ago, I resolved to not carry the stain of my Southern forefathers of racial dominance over blacks. No doubt today some smoldering racial hatred exists in the South because of what many believe to be “affirmative action” for blacks, a term understood as preferential treatment to a group.

Today, the buzzword is “reparations.” This concept, while ridiculous on its face for ancestors of black slaves, nonetheless is taken seriously by many blacks. There is an old saying that “if you keep picking at a scab, the sore will never heal.”

Sure, Jack Johnson deserves a presidential pardon and, just as surely, it will come in due time. President Bush is a mite busy at this time; I would suggest that you would pick away at some meatier scabs of contemporary substance. For example, a continuous, persistent effort to raise the abominable learning scores in our public schools.

This could be considered to be in your own self-interest because pushing out another generation of functional illiterates on California’s streets does not bode well for your readership.

Ernest Norsworthy

Rowland Heights

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You use a backhanded apology to a legend like Jack Johnson to take a very lame and unnecessary swipe at President Bush with a snide comment about his not granting pardons (as easily as his predecessor did to Mark Rich), and then expect us to believe you’re being sincere when you claim to “confront” your own racist past?

Too bad you couldn’t find a better “Word to the Black Man” before Mr. Johnson died. Shame on you indeed!

Eric G. Tilley

Los Angeles