The July 20 edition, right on this page, there was an interesting exchange.  First, there was a “complaint letter” about another letter that appeared in other papers racist content.  Then, as if someone stood in front of a mirror and said a name 3 times to summon it, the letter that bordered on racist content appeared.

I think printing both was proper.  Obviously if a letter contains true racist content, the paper should pull back and not publish it.  However, if the content just screams “I’m a racist” without saying anything actually racial, kind of like folks on social media who post references that movie that tries to talk about pedophilia without talking about the churches across both Catholic and Protestant spectrums where it does on thereby whitewashing them, that should be posted.  Why?  It’s great when the racists in our community out themselves.

What did I do?  I immediately APRA’d their voting address.  Now I can APRA all kinds of other things if I want to.  Then, just like in Norfolk, Nebraska where a young lady got arrested for engaging in health care, I can use the information I have obtained to make a mess.

It should be noted that in an individual circumstance, you have to find out if the person was really racist.  Were they suckered by Trump Rhetoric?  Were they just trying to be a good teammate to somebody they had a romantic interest?  Did they get suckered by the Facebook ad with the racist saying and bought the sweatshirt anyway because they liked the colors?  Once again, we root for those folks to sell as many as possible because you’re more likely to see clothes than you are to read a letter or social media post.

One of these days, COVID and old age will make the Republican Party no longer a thing.  Until then, we have to fight racism and authoritarianism.  We should never get angry, as offensive at first glance as it might be, when someone makes our jobs easier.

Robert T. Oliveira

Warwick