Editor’s note: The word limit on this article has been waived to preserve the intended purpose of the letter.
Dear Brent,
I am responding to your letter about equality, if that’s what you were aiming for, in the Technician. I first would like to say thank you for your opinion about this situation. There are some flaws in what you have written, however. You have titled the article “Dear black community, embrace the hate”, but you really should have entitled it “Dear Dr. Tracy Ray, embrace the hate”. It seems as though the majority of what you have written was directed to Dr. Ray instead of the black community. One thing you failed to acknowledge in the article is that Dr. Ray represents the black community and you did not address it that way but in a way to pick on only Dr. Ray.
Towards the rest of the article, I think that the comment, “It is precisely this knee-jerk reaction by both the black community and the administration that is holding back race relations in America and specifically at this University,” is a contradiction to the situation at hand. Basically you are saying the ones who are offended are the ones that are preventing this University from prospering, but that’s not exactly the big fuss of the matter. It’s the ones, as yourself, who want to accept all this hateful messages that are keeping things from progressing. It’s always the people who go against change that cause the most problems. Most times, the ones who cause the hate messages try and get a reaction from people. You mentioned equality at this school but of course the races that are not targeted would feel as though this school would be equal if the black community would accept racism. But what if the script flipped? What if someone wrote something offensive about you, your race, your family or something personal and valuable in your life? Would you accept the same message you sent the black community, to accept the hatefulness? No! You wouldn’t accept disrespect. So I think as long as you are not the one being offended then you cannot suggest for us to just get over the situation easily.
