This comment board is just another mormon we are better than you club.

I was raised in lily white Utah County. I was educated at a very diverse college. I taught school in the Deep South. My wife and I helped raise a young black man who had been raised in the inner-city with all kinds of stereotypical ghetto ideas and issues. A black family (friends of our black son) came for a weekend while they found an apartment – and ended up living in our basement for four months. I have fought racially-motivated discrimination in our school district since I became aware of it as a result of our son’s issues.

My oldest son is in college now, and as part of an English project he used a song to describe one of his central beliefs entitled “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist”. His point was that even he, while loving his brother like a biological brother, fights to deal with their racially-driven differences. He struggles with exactly what he should accept and what he should condemn and what he simply should tolerate.

Pots and kettles and glass houses and motes and beams …

When Sharpton said “those of who REALLY believe in God”, he grouped himself with the religious right – and they blew a gasket at being grouped with him. I don’t think it will get Romney elected, but it suddenly and directly made him no longer the prime enemy. That alone is interesting.

You try so hard to qualify yourself as a valid spokesperson, but I wonder if your use of the phrase “your people”, or saying that “slavery was a very bad thing but that was over a century ago” and to “get over it” represent the kinds of things that I believe show how far we still have to go overcome the lingering traces of latent racism in this country.

I always thought that I was raised in a pretty tolerant home by parents who represented all that I thought was good in my life. My father even was recognized once for helping a group of African American civilian workers for the Air Force, but I now find that racist attitudes that I didn’t even recognize at the time still haunt me, and were taught to me by these goodly parents.

Let’s not get too caught up in this. I think it will play itself out on its own.

I think we have had enough rhetoric from both you and Jesse Jackson. Actions speak louder than words and your actions are almost non-existent. I see a lot of showboating but nothing of substance ever seems to come out of it except more words that come down to nothing more than ‘You owe me”. Well the world does not owe you or “your people” anything. Get over it and move forward. Slavery was a very bad thing but that was over a century ago and that represents so many, many generations of the past.

The two of you were so quick to go after a fellow talk show host when he made an outlandish statement and now you are sitting in the same place but for some reason you are not doing anything about it. It is time for you to do something that sets a positive example for ‘Your people” as well as the rest of the world; suspend yourself from the public including your talk show.

When Imus came to your studios, I noticed from the pictures and videos that he was surrounded by mostly black men. How many non black people do you have working at the station? What is the ratio? It appears that you are quick to say how everyone else is a bigot or is anti black, but what would happen if a major communications company had a “White America Web.com”?

I believe that many outside your small community are tired of hearing the double talk, tired seeing the double standards and are tired of seeing your and Jesse exploit every negative situation with a wall of inflammatory words.

The both of you need to clean up your own shop. Take positive steps to set yourselves as examples of how to be a successful black person in today’s world. Stop the whining, stop the blaming, stop the double standard, stop living in the past and move to the future. You get jobs by hard work, through a good education, by earning respect through doing. You get respect through actions, by making your neighborhoods safer for everyone. Why is it that China Town, Korea Town, Little Italy, Greek Town and so many other ethnic areas within our communities attract people of all races; but the black ghetto’s are still so dangerous?

Why is it you and Jesse set the example of attack and not compromise or compassion. Where is your project to make a Black Town a place where people can come to celebrate your race? What would they celebrate: Illegal drugs? Brutality? Hip Hop that exploits women? Unprotected sex that delivers unbelievable rates of single parents?

I grew up in the Philadelphia area in a very poor neighborhood that boarded a black ghetto. My friends were beaten by black gangs. They purchased drugs on black controlled corners. I installed phones in black homes. I supervised installers for the telephone company in a black neighborhood. I have been there.

On the other side I have many people of color who have been and continue to be good friends. I really do not notice their color, they are just people. There are black people I respect for what they a have accomplished and what they must have endured to over come the issues you so quickly point out: I enjoyed working for Bruce Gordon when he was President at Bell Atlantic (Verizon), I would follow Colin Powell into battle, I think that Condi Rice has a chance at being one of our future Presidents and I would vote for her.

When I see you and your community celebrate these people and set them up as examples and role models, and see ‘your people ‘ use them instead of the sports escapees or the quick dollar drug dealers and the anti social Hip Hop stars, then you will see a change. When I see you and Jesse police these poor examples and showcase the good examples, then you will see change. When Jesse does not add to the already too large fatherless population, you will see change. When Jesse does not extort money from major companies, then you will see change. When you and Jesse no longer jump at every opportunity to show off the negative side of progress, then you will see change. When you and Jesse work to show positive things and set a positive example, then you will see change.

This now means that it is now your turn to lead; set a good example, stop the rhetoric. Apologize profoundly, take the punishment. Or will this be yet another example of the double standards, of the poor me, of how you are held back. . . This is your choice. This is your chance. Make it a good one.

As with so many things only the bad usually gets noticed. I know that there is a struggle within in your community. I know that there are so many more positive examples of success but it seams that only the negative is being exploited by you. You need to change.

“I intend to engage on this. He’ll find out rabbit hunting ain’t fun when the rabbit’s got the gun,” Sharpton said.

“Fine, you take your shot at Sharpton, but now you got to answer the question. If you have a church built on racial discrimination, then I do not believe you are a true believer in God.”

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