"...or should we call him John?"

Much is being made of the firing by National Public Radio of Juan Williams, the newsman who made some comments about his fear of people dressed as Muslims after the September 11 attacks.  The discussion revolves around the issue of whether, given his position at NPR, he had the right to express his views so candidly or his remarks were openly-bigoted statements.

What I find interesting is that Williams, being black, should have been much more sensitive to the fact that this is precisely what people of his color have complained about legitimately for a long time: their being targeted just because of the color of their skin or the way they present themselves to the world. Instead, he assumed the white people mentality of distrusting people of color altogether, especially foreigners, after a crime has been committed.

In this, he behaved like most Americans first, not like a member of a minority that has suffered major discrimination its entire life, showing very little empathy for "the others."

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