As I told my cousin this past weekend, there are major problems with this line of thinking. It makes anecdote (my best friend didn't get into Harvard because of affirmative action) and feelings (black women hated me because black men found me attractive) into theory. Such an approach makes intelligent, rigorous analysis impossible. It is a set of narrow-minded blinders that prevents us from thinking about interracial marriage in anything more than the most worn-out "isms."

If Wade came into my office hours for assistance, I would encourage her to look into the historical, geographical and political usages of the term -- for starters. I would also encourage her to stop "barely listening" and shutting out what boggles her mind and try to understand why someone might compare her ideas to Nazi notions of miscegenation. But I have a feeling that she just might stare back and see me -- a black anthropologist who studies Asian-American families and who is married to a Jewish man (how's that for identity politics?) -- as just another one of those angry black women who still has an ax to grind about Nicole and O.J.

-- Jacalyn Harden

I find it amazing that all Lillie Wade could find to discuss about interracial marriage was the hostility of nonwhites to the topic. What about the lynchings and home bombings done by white men "hostile" to the notion of interracial marriage? Hostility might make you "feel bad," but at least you have the opportunity to live another day.

-- Deborah Taylor

In answer to Wade's question, "interracial" marriage does cause a great deal of conflict for the most bigoted and emotionally constipated members of society -- black, white and otherwise. The Civil Rights movement also provoked much conflict between the "races," in that the most racist members of the "white" group mobilized against it. The Allied armies and anti-Nazi resistance fighters of World War II provoked conflict with the Third Reich; if they had not resisted the forces of tyranny, there would have been a "peace" of sorts. The point is that the conflict is more than worth the just peace and freedom that follows.

-- A.D. Powell

Wade says that her professor, when asked where she could find writings supporting her position, said, "There is, but it's old, and a lot was racist. You could read Nazi literature." Wade then interpreted that she was "being compared to a Nazi," which is something of a stretch to begin with. The article's subtitle, however, referred to "having a professor call you a Nazi." So "You could read Nazi literature" became "You're a Nazi!" While this transformation may have made the episode seem a little more dramatic, it was a rather serious distortion of what actually occurred.

As a graduate student, I can testify that "political correctness" on campus is neither the universal plague that those on the right imagine, nor the complete and utter myth that those of us on the left committed to freedom of thought and expression would hope. Occasions when students are truly prevented from expressing their beliefs should be noted and critiqued, but this was plainly not such an occasion.

-- Paul Waldman

Lillie Wade missed the point in her article about having her views dismissed by her professor. The professor did his job by telling her what current academic thought on the subject of interracial marriage was. Wade did not even listen to the professor's viewpoint. She had already dismissed him as a reliable source because he used "clichid jargon about giving center stage to the marginalized." She writes that she barely listened because she was trying to find a way out of the conversation -- because he did not agree with her.

One of the purposes of college is to experience new points of view. Wade had the perfect opportunity to have a dialogue with this professor and understand the complexities of the issue. Instead, she chose to ignore research that contradicted her and search for research that validated her own hypothesis, which was admittedly based on anecdotal evidence. If her paper was to have any merit she would have had to address that contradictory research. Basically, Wade needs to grow up and realize that she's in college now.

-- Tim Sherman

Freudians prefer blonds
BY DAMION MATTHEWS
(11/10/99)

For Damion Matthews to rely on Donald Spoto's "definitive" biography on Monroe -- featuring research that was reckless at best and irresponsible at worst -- is just plain inexcusable. Spoto relied on unnamed "witnesses" and anonymous "sources" to paint Monroe's last psychiatrist, Ralph Greenson, as a control freak who had a sexual obsession with Monroe and a quasi-incestuous relationship with his own sister; thus Spoto's most outrageous claim, that Greenson ordered housekeeper Eunice Murray to adminster an enema to Monroe on the night of Monroe's death, must be taken with a huge boulder of salt.

As far as Spoto's claim that Monroe and DiMaggio were going to remarry at the time of her death (his "evidence": quotes taken out of context from a DiMaggio biography), DiMaggio -- through friends -- told columnist Liz Smith that he and Monroe were not planning to retie the knot. Forgive my tending to believe DiMaggio more than Spoto.

And, forgive me for feeling ill when Peter Swales proclaims Norman Rosten as "perhaps [Monroe's] most loyal and closest friend in the world." Like so many "close friends," Rosten hopped on the Monroe gravy train by penning not only two books about her, but an opera!

Lee Strasberg had 10 years to fulfill Monroe's wishes to have her belongings distributed; don't blame Anna Strasberg for not doing what her husband should've done a long, long time ago. No doubt, she and Christie's are very, very happy that he didn't.

-- Lisa Davis
Los Angeles

Naked World: Malawi president condemns traditional sex rituals
BY HANK HYENA
(11/11/99)

You note that "the Old Testament itself is loaded with atrocious sex laws, such as the decree that unmarried rapists are required to marry their victims." While I won't argue that the Old Testament has a few laws that are at odds with current cultural trends, I do feel that this particular law is fair given the cultural context at the time. Whether we like it or not these days, unmarried women without a family who lived at the time of the writing of Deuteronomy were basically doomed to be poor for the rest of their lives. Making a rapist marry the victim is a way of ensuring that the woman, and a potential child, are provided for. For the Hebrews, to have a single woman with a child in the throes of poverty was a worse crime than to have her in a difficult, forced marriage.

-- Stephen Waters
Austin, Texas

The kingmaker speaks
BY FRED BRANFMAN AND DAVID WEIR
(11/12/99)

The only thing more disgusting than Pat Buchanan's racism and homophobia is Pat Choate's tendentious, tortured and finally ridiculous defense of the indefensible. His responses on questions related to the Holocaust represent a kind of political psychosis characterized by delusions and hallucinations.

As for the left-right-center flake-fest of the current Reform Party leadership, it is a demonstration of politics as usual: Winning is more important that political principles. It's also goofy and bound to fail. America certainly could use an alternative to the two main parties that could offer a rational critique of the current power structure, but anyone who believes the Reform Party represents this alternative belongs in the same loony bin with Choate and Ross Perot. Pat Buchanan, on the other hand, isn't a bit crazy -- he's just in business, and his products are hate and an intellectually dishonest and distorted view of American society. His supporters belong in a hospital; Buchanan belongs in the "dustbin of history."

-- Joseph Duemer
Potsdam, N.Y.

Pat Buchanan is not, never was and never will be a viable candidate for president of the United States. No matter the posturing and proclamations about being for the interests of the common man; Pat is a mouthpiece for the religious right.

Efforts to turn the discussion to economic issues are transparent. Jesse Ventura won the Minnesota governor's race because he appealed to the "mind your own damn business" sensibilities of the voters. It had nothing to do with his economic philosophy. Of course he said he was fiscally conservative. Who would vote for anyone who said otherwise?

The difference is that Pat appeals to the "your business is my business and I'll tell you how to run your business" sensibilities of religious fundamentalism. He has pandered to the sympathies of the religious right since he first took pen in hand. So what if he appeals to anyone's economic interests? It's not the economy anymore, stupid. It's me. And Pat Buchanan should leave me the hell alone.

-- Russ Miers

Gore's premature obituary
BY ERIC BOEHLERT
(11/11/99)

The pundits have wanted to get Clinton for so long, and for so little reason, they are taking their impotent furies out on Al Gore. They think that they still have their old power of making or breaking politicians, and want to break Gore just to prove it.

Unfortunately for the press, the American public has gotten into the habit of not listening to them. Meanwhile, print and broadcast journalists have tarted up and watered down what they used to call "hard news," in the mistaken idea that the people will take them more seriously if they are indistinguishable from the Weekly World News.

When Al Gore rides into the Oval Office next year and takes a Democratic supermajority with him into both houses of Congress, the pundits will be as surprised as the CIA was by the collapse of Communist Europe.

-- Tamara Baker
St. Paul, Minn.

Screw the polls! The vote is not taking place today, nor tomorrow, nor for another 11 months! Why should voters care about poll standings? The media should be reporting on who the candidates are, not on how far one is ahead of the other in the minds of people who are just as uninformed as you and me -- unless we've totally thrown over the idea that we vote for candidates based on their views and traits in favor of simply voting for whoever is most likely to win.

Let the campaigns use polling data for their own purposes; the news media should never report poll results. Doing so taints the political process. It sends the message to the voters that there is no point in voting, because the election has already been decided without their input. It breeds complacency on the winning side and disheartenment on the losing side. And pundits wonder why people stay home in droves on election day!

-- Keith Ammann
Albany, N.Y.

No littering
BY ARTHUR ALLEN
(11/12/99)

Arthur Allen writes in "No Littering" that "the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Thursday recommended that its 9,000 specialists reduce the number of embryos they implant" in order to prevent an "alarming" rise in multiple births. Allen cites the numbers of children born in multiple births, but it is the number of pregnancies that lead to those births that actually matters in determining the risks involved. Using Allen's own numbers, 76 percent of successful assisted pregnancies result in one child and another 21 percent result in twins -- so 97 percent of these pregnancies present no problem at all. The other 3 percent would be no problem if the parents allowed selective reduction of the excess embryos. To avoid the problems these 3 percent of cases represent, the ASRM would be willing to lower the odds of successful fertilization for the other 97 percent of patients. This seems like a bad deal for most patients and another example of the kind of media-enabled hysteria that increasingly guides policymaking. Calling fertility specialists "medical cowboys" and multiple births "litters" substitutes cheap shots for thought -- if the ASRM (and, presumably, Allen) want to address this problem, a more measured response is to call for reduced embryo transfer in those patients unwilling to consider selective reduction in any event.

-- Michael Dardia
San Francisco

Unarmed and under fire
BY AUSTIN BUNN
(11/11/99)

Each woman who served in Vietnam has an "individual" story, which does not necessarily represent the experiences of all of us. In my case, in one unit assignment, I was assigned and carried a weapon during alerts, and would have used it if necessary.

It is now recognized that all of us who served in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals. The high percentage of children with genetic birth defects born to women and men who served there, is not "just a coincidence." Nor is the high percentage of cancer among Vietnam vets.

The reunion in Olympia this week is not just for WACs, but includes enlisted women and officers of all branches of service. Clare Starnes, and those who assisted her in putting this together, have done an outstanding job of finding women who served in Vietnam, something that neither the Veterans Administration nor the Department of Defense has managed, or bothered, to do in all these years..

-- Elaine L. James
LaGrange, Ga.

"Fair use" vs. foul play
BY MARK GIMEIN
(11/10/99)

It is ironic that the L.A. Times, the finest newspaper in the United States, would be a party to the lawsuit against Free Republic, since the Times depends on the free flow of information for its own livelihood. In so doing, the Times is suppressing discussion in the public square -- hampering the freedom of those wishing to discuss current events by burying the dissemination of said information underneath a hill of legal Machiavellianism.

-- Gary Garland
Yorba Linda, Calif.