Crying wolf
BY JOAN WALSH
(06/11/99)

Joan Walsh attacks Ellis Cose for disparaging the progress of black Americans even as he celebrates it. Yet I was struck by Walsh's own curious skewing of social and political realities.

Isn't it striking that this dramatic improvement in black American life has come during a period of our nation's history when affirmative action programs are being rolled back; when entitlement programs are being abolished or curtailed; when no major new social initiatives aimed at black people are even on the drawing boards?

Yes, I know we have a Democrat in the White House, but what has he actually done on the domestic front? Very little indeed -- which in my opinion has been all to the good. Restrained by a Republican Congress for four of his six and a half years in office, Clinton has governed for the most part as a moderate Republican, and when he's gone beyond that -- welfare reform, for instance -- it's usually been a move to the right.

So why, in the midst of this reactionary era, are black folk doing so well? It seems to me that we're simply seeing trends that were bound to happen as our people became more thoroughly integrated -- economically if not socially -- into the texture of the society. I believe we're seeing in practical terms the playing out of William Julius Wilson's hypothesis about the declining significance of race. Racism hasn't gone away; what's happening is far more interesting and far more valuable.

Racism exists; it simply doesn't matter as much as it once did. In my parents' time, white people really could and did prevent people like my parents from making the most of their abilities and talents. Today, there may still be white people who might want to do the same to me, and some might even be in a position to do me harm. But in the America of 1999, the amount of damage such people can do to me is extremely limited. Think of it this way: How many well-educated, hard-working black people do you know who are poor? Scarcely a one, I'd wager. In today's America, any black person with education and ambition can and will make it. It's that simple.

We are still so far behind as a people that it'll take us decades to catch up. But we are catching up, and will continue to do so even in a conservative age.

-- Hiawatha Bray
Boston

I am sick of people like Walsh who perpetuate the idea that blacks enjoy playing "victim." Black middle-class anger is so great because we are the ones pushing the envelope. Even today, in 1999, I have to let my "white-sounding" husband talk to real estate agents, because I have been "dissed" repeatedly. I don't get any joy out of being a "victim," but am simply trying to find a place to live. According to Walsh, I should just be happy I got out of the 'hood!

-- Natalie Reaves
Clayton, N.J.

When Walsh argues that perhaps pundits should do less "guilt mongering" and more "progress hollering," I'm reminded of the following comment, taken from her Ford Foundation report on building communities: "The more I do this work, the more I recognize certain 'white' traits: We talk too much, we don't listen enough, we act like we're in charge all the time."

Walsh may want to think about following her own implicit recommendations here.

-- Lester Kenyatta Spence

Scary as hell
BY ARTHUR ALLEN
(06/11/99)

The serious crisis we face as a society with super-bacteria and the failure of antibiotics is entirely predictable, understandable and remediable, if we change our thinking about the nature of health and disease.

While antibiotics have been and remain a lifesaving strategy for life-threatening infectious illnesses, there is no doubt that they have been overused in a large number of less acute and more chronic conditions, including colds, influenza and gastrointestinal disorders. There are many resources in traditional systems such as Chinese, Tibetan, Ayurvedic and homeopathic medicine that can be used safely and effectively, relying on herbal medicinal resources that work and have been proven over millennia for such conditions. Rather than killing bacteria or viruses, these traditional, nature-based medicines harmonize body, mind and spirit with the environment, strengthening the host so that infectious disease cannot gain a foothold. The increasing use of such herbs and echinacea and goldenseal, although not a well-educated use, is a sign that the public is ready for other intelligent approaches to the treatment of these disorders.

Your article correctly alludes that bacteria seem to be able to decipher the code of even the most powerful antibiotics. This is understood in traditional medical systems to reflect that we live in a conscious, intelligent universe, that can only be mastered by living in harmony with all life forms, not by killing every threat on sight.

-- Z'ev Rosenberg

Down and out in India
BY ERIK BRAUN
(06/11/99)

Hmmm. Cerebral White Guy goes to India. White Guy encounters human feces, poverty, "jarring geekiness." (Poor thing, having to look at those ubiquitous "polyester suits"!) Nubile Nordic girl, aglow with Western affluence and "pale-skinned" propriety, makes it all better.

Am I the only person who finds this piece written with the maturity of an oversexed Orange County teenager, with the racial understanding of a Buchananite Republican? Braun may be studying Buddhism, but his narrative shows how far he has to go. Think of Siddhartha Gautama's tenet No. 1: "Life is suffering, and the cause of suffering is desire."

-- Monica Bhargava

Capitol Hill's odd couple
BY JAKE TAPPER
(06/10/99)

I would like to think that the coalition politics of black liberal Democrats and white conservative Republicans will become something of a standard in years to come, and not a newsworthy aberration. Lord knows black Americans need the G.O.P. to become more inclusive, if only to keep the Democrats honest.

Unfortunately, there's a long-standing philosophy among Republican conservatives that black voters are by default Democrats and out of their reach. That's an assumption that grows less true with every generation of African-American voters, but the way the Republican right bashes George W. Bush's talk of "compassionate conservatism," it's clear Bush has to sell his own people on the idea before he can reach mine.

-- Jeff Winbush
Columbus, Ohio

Last exit for education
BY PETER BEBERGAL
(06/11/99)

I got my first degree at Brown and completely took the whole four-year college experience for granted, until I met folks struggling to start their first degrees starting at a community college. The amount of tenacity and energy that it took to combine work and school for years (usually year-round) was daunting and awe-inspiring.

When I decided to change careers and return to school, I choose to attend classes at a community college, and found the experience much more rewarding than attending the local state college. I was taking pre-med classes, and spent my evenings surrounded by professionals (editors, accountants, military) who were also trying chart a new direction in life. The only folks who didn't seem to take us seriously -- and were by far the biggest disappointment -- were the teachers. One biology teacher even referred to the day students as "non-carbon-based life forms." Nice, huh? What my community college needs is more teachers like the author, because (clearly) it has sarcasm, apathy and negativity covered.

-- Deeanna Franklin
Silver Spring, Md.