To the Editor:
I am writing in response to the letter by Booker Peek, entitled "Time to Thank Liberal Whites." I cannot believe that such a letter was written. What do I as a person of color have to thank whites for? Granted, they endured a lot "helping" us get our rights which we should have had in the first place. Why should we show gratitude to someone who has benefited from our oppression, conservative or liberal? Also why should we thank someone for support and help that should have been given to us as humans beings? Somebody needs to explain this to me because I don't get it.
Another issue I have with the letter is, when was the last time someone wrote a letter thanking those blacks and latinos, men and women, conservative and liberal, who died and suffered more than any white liberal ever had or will for their struggle. The last time I checked, Blacks were the ones getting lynched in the South, not white liberals.
It has always been strange to me that we are always willing to thank whites for something that they gave us, while attacking each other for being lazy, not being "black enough" or not doing anything. So from the bottom of my heart I would like to thank those blacks and Latinos who died and struggled and are still struggling, enduring more than I could imagine and would ever want to go through. It is with my deepest gratitude that I say thank you for making it possible for me to attend and get my degree at Oberlin College and I hope many more show the same appreciation.
I must give Mr. Peek some credit, it is the greatest suck up letter I have ever seen in my life. But it still hurts me that an educated black man is more willing to uplift and hype another race, than his own who needs it the most.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 8; November 8, 1996
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