Don’t Make the David Dukes News Media Stars; Rights for All
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In “Little Comfort in Mr. Duke’s Loss” (editorial, Nov. 18), you again miss the significance of David Duke. Mr. Duke lost because of his background as Nazi and Ku Klux Klan geek. If a known child molester with an innovative day-care program had got 40 percent of the way toward certification, we would heave a sigh of relief at his defeat. Would we also reject the innovations he proposed? Many people in Louisiana supported David Duke, despite his background, because of his ideas. Indeed, several of his ideas are half baked. But he is, unfortunately, one of a very few politicians who — for whatever reason — advocate equal opportunity and civil rights for white males. Most other politicians, including the President, seem to believe that rights are something you have only if you don’t have power. If you are a rich black man, you belong to a group that has rights that must be enforced to the extent that they infringe on those of a poor white man whose group has power instead. A prime example is the so-called Civil Rights Act of 1991. Without this law, if a black man did not meet the qualifications for a job, a white man could be hired because of his qualifications. With this law (barring certain exceptions), the white man’s superior qualifications will be irrelevant, and the black man will get the job because of his race. If you are a white person who can envision imminent unemployment as a result of the economy, the prospect of facing de jure racial discrimination for your next job is a real issue. David Duke got almost 40 percent of the vote because of the opposition’s liabilities and because he fastened onto the burgeoning issue of equal rights for whites. If, by some miracle, he had been elected, any attempt on his part to legislate inequality against blacks would have engendered twice the backlash we saw Nov. 16. The antidote to David Duke is equal rights for every individual, regardless of group. JOHN G. SIMS Burke, Va., Nov. 18, 1991 More : query.nytimes.com |