Editor,
In his letter in Tuesday's Daily Lobo, Philip Howell tries in vain to make the point that it would be a mistake to elect Sen. Barack Obama just because he's African-American. But he simply proves my point that racism is still an integral part of American society.
He also believes that all the world's problems can be solved by U.S. military intervention. Hey, its worked so well in the past - why give up a good thing?
White folks like to think discrimination against minorities doesn't exist anymore. To the neoconservatives, the only kind of discrimination that does exist in America is reverse discrimination.
They love that concept. I doubt Howell even knows any minorities, so he can't ask them what they think.
I personally know several white folks who are scared of Obama simply because he's African-American. These are the people who scare me - people who think everything's fine and dandy in America today and anyone who complains about it should just shut the hell up.
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Howell then tries to make some pathetic, utterly patronizing concessions to people of color by making ridiculous statements such as, "More minorities own homes and their own businesses than at any time in history."
I don't suppose that has anything to do with the fact that there are simply more of them now, huh? Or how about this choice line: "The African-American middle class is enjoying growth because it has intact families and values education. Its incomes are compatible to those of whites doing the same work."
Again, where is this information coming from? One in 10 African-Americans is in prison, and most African-American children are being raised by a single parent, partly due to the above statistic.
Howell then calls Sen. Hillary Clinton and Obama "ultra-liberal." If Howell considers Clinton an ultra-liberal, he is clearly lacking brain cells. I guess Adolf Hitler was a moderate, then, eh?
And how is continued Iraq war spending necessary to fund health care, job growth or social security? Shouldn't it be the exact opposite?
That sentence should read: "With the Iraq war spending, we cannot fund any of the changes he suggests."
Is this really the way neoconservatives perceive the world? The exact opposite of reality?
Clearly, from my experience, the answer is yes. Howell is just an apologist for the wealthy, white war profiteers who have bankrupted this country and destroyed our society.
He then bemoans that if Obama is elected and he screws up, it will make it harder for Thomas Sowell or Condoleezza Rice to become president.
Pardon me while I gag. Going by my past experience, if Rice's lips are moving, she's lying.
But I really don't want to be too hard on Howell. He's not alone, but thankfully he is in a tiny minority that is shrinking every day.
Jason Darensburg
UNM staff
