Letters to the Editor (2) - April 18 2007

Conservative Confusion

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Dear Mr. Sugg, I was told that you believe it is not only oxymoronic but moronic for an African-American to be conservative (Metropolis, “The Jones supremacy,” April 11). Can you offer support for this statement? I understand it would be quite oxymoronic for an “Al Sharpton” or “Jesse Jackson” follower to think for himself in today’s world, but are you saying a black man who believes in conservative issues is not really black or not really conservative? I look forward to your response.

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– Jonathan MacCollum, Atlanta

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John Sugg responds: The letter writer misrepresents what I wrote. I referred to the Republican Party, which has a long-documented record of playing to neosegregationist and racist sentiments, and not to being a conservative.

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An Ex-pat responds to rise in racism

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I surfed into the Creative Loafing website for the first time in a while and found your piece about commenting on a piece written by someone else about racism, and it attracted racist comments (From the Editor, “Hate magnet,” April 4).

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I do not have an answer. However, the question is a good part of the reason that I am an American (and an Atlantan) who does not live in the U.S.A.

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I live in Shizuoka, Japan. Japanese attitudes toward foreigners (especially white guys, Americans like me, even if we have married into the culture) are a bit of very subtle racism, SUBTLE! There was nothing subtle about the things you described. I am truly sad for the direction the U.S.A. seems to be taking generally. It is not all about racism, or maybe it is. Gotta find a bad guy, a villain. Can’t be the African-Americans, maybe it can be the Jewish-Americans. If it cannot be the American Jews, maybe it can be the Islamic peoples of the Middle East. They are far away, we don’t really know much about them, so blame them for everything. But, then some want to blame both the Jews AND the Muslims. Not logical, right?

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The prejudice in Japan that I referred to earlier is mostly language-based. I speak mostly English on the radio five days a week here, so people think my Japanese is even more limited than it is and ask strange questions as if being an alien from the U.S. is as good as being from Mars.

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Americans who have been sumo wrestlers, mostly Hawaiian, were into the culture through language AND a traditional sport, so NO problem.

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Back to the U.S., nature abhors a vacuum, and in the same way people’s attitudes don’t stand still. They have to be moving in a positive direction OR a negative one.

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– Pat Boggs, Shizuoka, Japan