Dear Mr. Deggans:

Having read your recent column (Message of hate, June 26, 2005), I would like to pose a question or two:

First, assuming that your references to examples of hate speech are accurate (and I don’t doubt that they are.) have you ever wondered why so-called hate speech has pretty much faded away vis a vis other minorities but it persists, possibly increased, against blacks?

Consider;
A. Many newspaper I have read in recent years have a black columnist whose function it is to go around picking scabs off every sore before it can heal. You do not need a degree from a medical school to know that a wound will not heal easily if you scrape the scab off of it and pour a little irritant on it.

Perhaps the brightest thing the Jimmy Carter ever said was that we should adopt a posture of benign neglect toward racism. He has been proven prescient. He understood that the problem will not go away until we, as individuals, face our responsibilities in this area. The government can not force me to like you or you to like me, but it can damn sure cause me to back off from you if I am going to be charged with a hate crime any time I speak my mind.

B. Much of the hate speech is reflective of real problems which sincerely distress normal people. These people find their distress exacerbated by the refusal of "black leaders" to face reality. You state that, "...(B)lack culture is often equated with the ...baby-making welfare queen". Do you know, or more importantly, will you ever report on the rate of illegitimate births among blacks? Can you personally or institutionally handle the reality which is simply that black Americans have the highest rate of illegitimacy of any significant civilized group in the world? THE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD!! The consequences of this phenomenon are predictable vis a vis anti-social behavior.

I could not say it any better than Chris Rock: "If you call your mother Sally and call your grandmother Mom, you are going to jail." Do you and the "black leaders" really want to know why there are more young black in jail than there are in college? Boys of any ethnicity who are raised in a one parent family are more likely to be violators than scholars. (Note. The ethnic group with the best record academically is the Asian Americans. Their illegitimacy rate is 1%.)

Perhaps it is true that "welfare queen" is an unfair stereotype. Perhaps it is true that other slurs posted to the internet are unfair. Perhaps it is also true that many observers view this problem as a blight on our entire society and are appalled that people who should be trying to address the issue are too busy nit-picking "hate speech".

Now, let’s see. Is niggardly a bad word?

I will continue to read your column. I look forward to your reporting on the efforts of black leaders to solve the problem of a 60-70% illegitimacy rate among blacks.

Pardonus