[Susan Harrison]

Since my field of work is in teaching English to speakers of other languages, I have been exposed to some of the same ideas that Leonard Pitts discusses from time to time in his column. It is difficult to get my head around some of them, yet I have heard them before from those who have had first hand experience, who are t he same people I admire for many, many reasons. I think that Leornard Pitts has my great respect, because as I read his column regularly, I see he is quite well balanced in his challenging of whites and blacks as well. But, particularly, if there was one p erson who ever made me think, it was a professor I had at Rutgers University who had a perspective that would have to make me and others like me listen and contemplate; she was a highly educated white woman who spoke several languages fluently and did so much humanitarian work that she had to qualify as my heroine. What made her so worthy of listening to on this subject was that she had been married to a black African male and by him had three children. So, she with the tender heart of a mother and as an educated data-gatherer, had to suffer the nuances of racism through her own children’s experience. Listen to everyone with an opinion, for it is data for you to examine. But in your quest, perhaps you could seek out people like my professor who, is white like you, but who has felt the sting of stereotyping and racism in the most poignant of ways…through the children she loves. Then you may have to contemplate and work over the arguments for a very long time to, like me, only get a snippet of understanding for someone else’s reality. This message box doesn’t seem to let me reread what I’ve written for continuity. I am almost scared to let it go, but just know, I am trying to understand, like you. Keep reading Pitts, and I think that while your respect for him is growing, every once in a while you may catch on to a corner of what he is saying. One more thing…While doing a crossword puzzle one day, I ran across the definition ‘to think’ and discovered that the word was ‘opine.’ It seems to me that must be the root word of ‘opinion’. Opinions are about thinking! But… I think we are very dangerous when we have an opinion that we think is fact. It is imperative to keep adding data at all times to refine an opinion; an opinion should be supported or altered by a lifetime’s stream of new information from varied perspectives. So, listen and contemplate.

User Detail :  

Name : Susan Harrison, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 49, City : Washington, State : NJ, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher of ESL, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

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