Letters to the Editor: Rupp, racism, UK, white privilege ... and Trump
Check the stats
I’m not writing to take on Herald-Leader opinions columnist Linda Blackford and her opinion on University of Kentucky and Rupp Arena. It’s her opinion, and I’ll take it as such. However, it’s her constant use of statistics, and their vague context/definitions that really bother me.
In her article she presented several “facts” as if they were negative situations that absolutely needed correction. So, of the 20 members of the UK Board only two (10%) are Black. UK President Eli Capilouto only has one Black direct report (I suspect he has 10 or fewer), Black students make up 7.8% of the student body, and Black employees are around 8% of the workforce. Now let’s look at those same figures with the knowledge that the state has, according to the 2019 U.S. Census estimate, a Black population of 8.5%. It’s now not such a dramatic representation, right? Not exactly a situation where all those UK racists are fighting progress?
It appears to me that all of these numbers are almost exactly what you would expect in a perfectly colorblind society.
We can debate the Rupp Arena name change another time. Preferably, when proof of racism is considered something more than just an allegation.
Joe Mercer, Lexington
Recovering racist
My name is Paul Whiteley Sr. and I am a white racist. Late in my life I am acknowledging it. For 82 years, I’ve benefited unfairly from “white privilege.”
Like the recovering alcoholic or recovering drug addict, I’m a recovering racist who doesn’t want to be racist. For the rest of my life I want to be an anti-racist who does everything I can to fight the systemic racism I was born into in America.
It still exists in 2020 and is so painfully divisive. I’m sorry for my racist sins and pray today’s beloved Black community will forgive me and my ancestors for treating Black people as “less than human” for 401 years.
But, asking for forgiveness is not good enough by itself. We, as a nation, have to be willing to pay back via reparations what we stole from our Black brothers and sisters over the centuries.
Doing reparations is doing justice and is much more important than going to Mars or adding a space force to our military service branches.
Paul L. Whiteley Sr., Louisville
Americans lucky
My family had its beginnings after the Civil War in Scott County in Kentucky. More specifically, Great Crossings, Kentucky. The time was the early 1880s and my widowed great-grandfather brought his six-year-old son to this area.
As was common in those days, my great-grandfather had already changed his last name to better assimilate into the community. Now here I am, the fourth generation since that time. My family never had any association with slavery, but the farm I grew up on had a Black community on the edge that was formed after the war, so I became aware of its meaning. I grew up playing with the neighborhood kids, although we didn’t have integrated schools at the time.
Today I am constantly bombarded with the words “white privilege” and “racism,” it seems to make me feel uncomfortable with something I had nothing to do with. I wish these terms were used less by educators, the media, and certain politicians, along with the word, “minority.” These are words that divide us. We are all Americans, blemishes and all, and are by far the most sought after place to live in the world. Count our blessings and celebrate. We could have been born in North Korea or Venezuela.
Charles Adams, Georgetown
Trump teardown
Statues and landmarks associated with racism and unscrupulous persons in our nation’s history are being removed everywhere. While this is the correct action in most instances, we are woefully remiss in not addressing all of the edifices where the Trump name looms like a dark cloud. President Donald Trump has continually promoted racism and xenophobia in this country and his obvious disregard for the law and lack of even a scintilla of moral fiber should definitely be addressed when tearing down monuments. All of the properties bearing his name are nothing but monuments to his ego and corruption. If we are going to cast blame, let’s not forget Trump.
Sara Wellnitz, Lexington