I read and appreciated the front page article on June 28 about a man who was stopped by a woman while on a run on the Hillside. I, like many others, am aghast at this woman’s behavior. I feel for her family and hope she gets the psychological help she needs so she doesn’t hurt anyone again in any way.
I am writing because I didn’t understand the grammar in these two sentences found in the second paragraph: “The woman was white. Ingram is Black.” Why is white in lower case and Black is in upper case, I asked? I was made aware that the Associated Press has issued a change that governs the newspapers. Black is to be spelled with a capital B, “… conveying an essential and a shared sense of history … The lowercase black is a color, not a person.” So, shall we now capitalize Yellow for Asian, Brown for Hispanic, and so on?
I grew up in Iowa and Nebraska in the early 1960s with parents who never used the ‘n' word. I went to a rural Iowa high school in the 70s with only one Black family. One of the children of that family won homecoming king in my sophomore year. He was elected because he was popular and kind to all. We thought nothing of his skin color. I now know that this was unusual in that time, but at the time, I didn’t think anything about it. I feel very lucky to have had and continue to have, good relationships with people of all colors and nationalities.
I later realized that not all people view the world the same way my parents did. I have Black friends who have told me their horror stories firsthand, and I am appalled. We need change. We need to be tolerant. We need to value all lives and we need to work to eliminate the racism that exists in our society today. I will not personally tolerate racism and will stand up and voice this when and if I see it. I don’t have to yell and scream, but I must not tolerate it in my presence. Having said all that, what I am saying is this, all lives matter. Treat your brothers and sisters as you would like to be treated; it is the golden rule!
— Margaret Varlamos
Anchorage
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