Dear Source,
Mr. [Malik] Sekou's Op-ed on terrorism both domestic and foreign (See September 2001 article "U.S. policy on terrorism needs rethinking")was right on the money and to the point until …
I was a longtime resident of St. Thomas and now reside in Virginia. I was in elementary school when the civil rights marches were in D.C. and in Alabama. I am of Puerto Rican descent but was raised very much a Virgin Islander.
I think what Mr. Sekou was alluding to was that we should have sympathy with those who perpetrated the horrendous acts of Sept. 11, be it because of our foreign policy or because of our past treatment of African Americans, or whatever grievances anyone has with the United States. With this I take great issue, because it smacks of the same old tired liberal drivel about whitey taking advantage of every ethnic minority or situation in the world to exploit the masses.
Unfortunately, we have our own Sekou here at the University of Virginia, and he, too, is a so-called history professor and his name is Julian Bond. He is a demagogue and a divisive figure; his incendiary rhetoric serves no purpose other than to divide the races and incite racial hatred.
Mr. Sekou talks about white supremacy and the David Dukes of the world and how they try to hide their hatred of people of color by toning down their hatred so that they can be more readily palatable to the rest of society, and he thanks Barbara Lee, who is an avowed Communist and a supporter of the Grenada puppet regime, and the only member of the U.S. Congress to vote against the congressional resolution calling for military action against the Taliban in Afghanistan! Does Sekou support this type of thinking?
Mr. Sekou had my attention with his well-written piece on terrorism and its aftermath on the American psyche, but he quickly lost me when he drifted into the same old "blame whitey for what happened to America" diatribe that sounded more like Louis Farrakhan and his ilk. How sad.
Janet Trapani
Unionville, Va.
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