The mainstream media's obsession with finding bigotry in people of color is approaching the ridiculous. Jesse Jackson still suffers for one remark he made 15 years ago, which he has apologized for numerous times. White members of Congress make bigoted remarks about various groups (gays, the NAACP, Muslims, women) on a regular basis and are allowed to mumble halfhearted apologies and walk away. Nitpicking, you say. No -- it's very important that white America come to terms with the fact that when we talk about racism, we have met the enemy, and he is us.

-- Eric Oines
Minneapolis

Oh, please, somebody stop this train before it gets to Sillyville! How many people know there is crappy weather in Scotland? How many of us would be out there, swinging a silly metal club at a little white ball in bitter, biting cold and windy weather when we could be sitting inside, warm and toasty, listening to jazz and drinking rum? Race has nothing to do with that. Common sense sounds closer to the truth.

I think the author said it best herself: "the tone of white frat boys whining about affirmative action to excuse their own mediocrity." These people have probably been festering for a long time, waiting for Tiger or his dad to say something so that they can use it and vindicate Fuzzy for his comments.

Will white men ever stop being angry? Maybe that is the key to equality. Or do we all have to be angry, too? Sounds too ridiculous to me.

-- Brenda Brody

If Earl Woods had been white and made his comments about Africa instead of Scotland, he would have been crucified in the media, so the answer is yes, he is a racist. That Susan Zakin does not understand this and indeed further compounds her hypocrisy with the sexist and racist crack about "angry white frat boys" shows she has no business being a serious journalist.

-- John Dinkeloo

My magical movie mystery tour
BY CAMILLE PAGLIA
(06/16/99)

At last, Camille Paglia has clarified her bewildering claim to have the mind of a man. Turns out she doesn't have the noggin of your average Joe six-pack, though, but that of a "pre-Stonewall gay man."

Putting aside the unexpected revelation that all pre-Stonewall guys thought alike, it occurs to me that Paglia's time travels can be a source of great comfort for us post-Stonewall gay guys. For example, who knew that the guy who was dragged outside and thrown into a paddy wagon for having the crust to enter an illegal gay bar could soothe his pain by reflecting on Rosalind Russell's wacky brilliance in "Auntie Mame"? Even better, on his first Christmas away from the family that no longer wanted anything to do with him, a pre-Stonewall gay guy had only to attend a Marilyn Monroe movie in an empty theater and join the pagan celebration of female sexuality to make everything better.

Paglia's startling insight will change everything. I mean, who could have guessed that the discussion in pre-Stonewall gay bars centered on an effete, snobbish bitch fight in academia over structuralism that has absolutely no relevance to the real world? Man, oh man. Us modern gay dudes got rooked.

-- Bernard Gundy
San Francisco

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