COLUMN -- Battle against racism must be won in people's hearts, minds

Pioneer Press
Feb. 24, 2002

Excerpt --

In our own ways, we good God-fearing, right-thinking Minnesota bigots perpetuate racism every day. And we do it with the best of intentions. We talk the talk but don't walk the walk of a color-blind society — a society where people are "judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin." Instead, our pervasive attitude is that race matters.

Once we segregated races because we held people of color inferior. Today we extend special status and benefits by race. Why make race an issue unless we hold that a person of color cannot possibly succeed without beneficent white help? If one judges a person by race, regardless of whether the outcome is for benefit or harm, is that anything but racism?

Read the column . . . .