Victim mentality

Re “Can it bring the guards up?” Opinion, Nov. 15

Regarding Erin Aubry Kaplan’s claim that “black security guards are often working jobs of last resort, jobs they see as painful evidence of an almost permanent failure of poor blacks to attain a better life in their native country,” I have worked with black, homeless, HIV-positive teens with long histories of sexual and physical abuse who possess the drive to succeed -- and do. It’s a beautiful thing to see. So if these blacks can succeed, then anyone can. That is if they don’t buy into Kaplan’s perpetual blacks-as-victims mantra.

MARK TARNOWSKI

Minneapolis