Pubdate: Sun, 10 Oct 1999 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Author: Loretta Green, Mercury News Staff Writer COLUMN ON RACIAL PROFILING REVERBERATES ON MANY NERVE FIBERS My column last Sunday decried the governor's veto of a bill to measure the extent of racial profiling by law enforcement. The huge reader response favored my point. Here are excerpts from a variety of opinions: I read your Sunday column at breakfast and just broke into tears. . . . So I wrote a letter to Governor Davis and enclosed your article. I asked him why, since he could walk in the farmworkers' shoes, he couldn't walk in yours, too. AGGIE ROBINSON Palo Alto ~~~~~~~~~~~~ As a law student here at USC and a black female, I know only too well the problems of DWB. Going in tears to my mother, asking her why I am always followed slowly by police and eventually stopped when I'd done nothing wrong. I remember my mother's anger, her beloved hands curling into fists and her words: ``I have worked so damned hard to provide a life here (an affluent suburb of L.A.) and we are constantly being punished for it! MONIQUE JEWETT Los Angeles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We could all multiply your examples, but the stunning thing is how unaware non-blacks (or at least non-minorities) are of the discrimination and victimization that takes place. After a talk by a visiting NYU professor in our African and African-American lecture series, a white student came up to our assistant director quite chagrined to learn that racism still existed in America. He thought we'd passed laws to eliminate that sort of thing. PROFESSOR JOHN RICKFORD Stanford University ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So now you are suggesting that we should have affirmative action in our legal system. I suppose the solution is to have black police for blacks, white for whites, Chinese for Chinese etc. Your article is racist, bigoted, demonizes the police and is out of Farrakhan's book. J. BLACK via e-mail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Using skin color as an excuse for discrimination or underachievement or ``racial profiling'' . . . only serves to highlight the habitual ignorance Negroes have endured for generations. And as demonstrated by your column, you only serve to amplify the stupidity. We all suffer discrimination in one form or another. But you seem to think it only happens to Negroes, yeah sure. Your argument is stale. And ignorant. Bottom line, why don't you people stop your (expletive), grow up and compete on merit. Then, and only then, will you succeed like the rest of us. agree with you totally. It's not because I'm black, because I'm not. . . Our son is a law-abiding citizen with a good job, but he happens to look young. He drives a lowered car that is all fancy, and he gets stopped every single day. . . . He has never had a speeding ticket and never had any warrant out for his arrest. . . . I am so tired of the police doing this to children. . . . I wish that you would write an article about how they stop anybody -- not just because of DWB -- driving while black -- but also driving while young. HELEN JOHNSON San Jose ~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm not sure that requiring police to keep records of race for each stop will do much to help. . . . Somehow, the individual officer has to develop an attitude that recognizes the rights of every citizen. RALPH BRITTON Palo Alto ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Those of us who are white and have African-American sons worry, too. . . . I wouldn't want to be in a cop's shoes any day of any week. However, I find it hard to believe that the police officers in our area are so regularly threatened by young African-Americans that they feel they must treat them in such an inhumane way. LAURA MANTHEY San Jose ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A profound article -- my words exactly. Being a Puerto Rican living in San Jose, my husband was stopped many times -- they even put a gun to his face because they were looking for someone that looked like him. Our sons are at risk and, yes, we are all concerned. SCARLET phone message ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contact Loretta Green at or (650) 688-7565. Fax (650) 688-7555. . - --- MAP posted-by: manemez j lovitto