Givens: Harmful Effects of Slavery Are Still With Us
 
From: txbrew@att.net
To: brandongivens@hotmail.com
 
Mr. Givens,
 
You are obviously a product of government schools. That is evident by your regurgitation of politically correct propaganda concerning slavery, and I’m sure your teachers would beam with pride at your observation that segregation created a system in which poor blacks, "did not share equally in the prosperity their labor created." Now that segregation is gone, do you share equally in the prosperity of the newspaper for which you occasionally write? If not, you must insist on your fair share.
 
I was particularly amused at this statement: "Education is the gateway to class mobility, yet homes in districts with higher scoring public schools cost $205,000 more, on average."
 
You must mean that for families of lower economic classes to live in "districts with higher scoring public schools" the housing costs should be lower. What would you suggest? Should the government force home costs to remain under $5,000 in those districts? Should the government score those schools lower? If "education is the gateway to class mobility," shouldn’t folks get an education before they move into districts where houses cost $205,000? What’s your point?
 
Finally, you wrote, "Class exploitation will exist as long as a quality education and health care are commodities too expensive for most to obtain. Today, the differences in public school quality remain nearly as stark as during segregation."
 
You people keep insisting that "education" is the panacea for all of our social and civil ills. What you mean is "schools run by the government to rearrange social strata and redistribute wealth" will cure our ills. Dear Mr. Givens, that didn’t work for the Soviet Union and they gave it up after 75 years of trying. You and your fellow Bolshevik zealots need to do the same.
 
Jerry C. Brewer