THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 11, 1994 TAG: 9406090015
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Medium
DATELINE: 940611 LENGTH:
Travel to Alabama, where students were told by their school principal that they could not attend their senior prom if they wished to attend as an interracial couple.
{REST} Travel to North Carolina, where black people were refused service at the local Denny's restaurant.
Travel to the local bank and see how many well-qualified black people are refused home loans while questionable white people's loans are enthusiastically approved.
Sit down one day and watch television. Count how many black shows are canceled because the Nielson Rating Boxes are not in black homes. If it were not for Fox, MTV or BET, black people would get no television exposure except on the 11 o'clock news.
Explain to me how a black man can get life for robbing a person at gunpoint of $200 to $300, but a white man can rob an elderly person of his entire life savings, without the use of a gun (I believe it is referred to as a white-collar crime), and might get two years.
Until Mr. Wetzel has entered an elevator and had an elderly woman move to the rear of the compartment and place her purse over her neck for fear of being robbed, or been refused service at a gas station in Oklahoma just because of the color of his skin, he is not one to comment on the status of racism in the United States!
The situation is worse for me, because, being a U.S. Marine, I must fight for the rights of these people even though they have no respect for me as a man!
MAURICE E. MOSBY
Virginia Beach, May 29, 1994
by CNB