Editor, The Beacon:
At a time when Florida is openly passing laws to suppress the voting rights of millions of Black Americans, letter-writer David Paine asks us to look over here (where you’ve relatively succeeded), not over there (where the government is actively trying to screw Americans again).
It is heavy-handed, not the sleight of hand deemed necessary for a respected opponent. He wants us to celebrate the past, while they’re gleefully passing regressive laws in the present.
He exposes his true feelings with his attack on critical race theory. Like most opponents of critical race theory, he does not define, nor can he define, this course, which is not taught in public schools, and which is taught only in selective classes in some law schools.
He says that critical race theory is not an accurate accounting of American history, and asserts, “[W]e are one of the least racist nations,” but does not name the comparative study only he has seen.
To my knowledge, America is the only country that has erected statues to traitors, seditionists and insurrectionists.
Paine does not object to the communist-style laws sweeping the country that will have students “outing” teachers they don’t like, will cause teachers to be afraid to engage in mind-expanding discussion, and will have students fed a sanitized version of their history (which is what I got in school 80 years ago).
Shouldn’t our kids learn that the imputation of inferiority onto Blacks was merely a justification of slavery and non-hiring?
Shouldn’t our kids learn that the race riots that were so prevalent in our history were actually whites killing Blacks for economic reasons?
Shouldn’t our kids learn that this latest round of voter suppression is merely another attempt of a declining population to use racism to retain power?
Julius C. Bennett
Deltona
As far as I know, America is the only place where one race of people went to war with itself in order to free a second race of people.