Ramirez on Conservative Group

* I read with interest Michael Ramirez’s account of his speaking engagement before the Council of Conservative Citizens (“ ‘I Am Not a White Supremacist,’ ” Commentary, Jan. 31) and found his account at best disingenuous. If he was not aware of their extremist views, he has his head more deeply buried in the sand than I believed.

Ramirez must realize that, like Trent Lott’s, his association with this racist group validated them and enhanced their reputation. To relate that he preached the gospel of equality is no excuse.

If Ramirez is truly interested in addressing the views of white supremacist groups, I suggest he satirize them in his cartoons.

I found his apologia juxtaposed with yet another impeachment cartoon ironic, using as it does Johnnie Cochran’s well-known mantra from the O.J. Simpson trial.

Mr. Ramirez, you don’t have to be white to be a racist.

BILL WAKELAND

Shadow Hills

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* Ramirez makes an obvious point that only the most partisan ideologues would deny: It is not who you speak to but what you say that matters. I have spoken on occasions to racist groups of both the left and the right. In every speech I stressed, as did Ramirez before the Council of Conservative Citizens, the foundations of American constitutionalism in the equality of rights and the rule of law. I have never been so naive as to believe that I would actually persuade the groups to give up their racist views, but I always had hope that one or two or a handful of those in attendance would critically examine their unreasonable beliefs. This hope was always enough to make the effort worthwhile. It is not the forum, but the message that matters.

EDWARD J. ERLER

Professor of Political Science

Cal State San Bernardino

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* Ramirez “vaguely remembers” speaking to the CCC (Jan. 26); now, when some heat is generated, he miraculously is able to produce the text of the speech. Amazing!

Remarkable how his speech referred to Dr. Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez and Thomas Jefferson. The last refuge of a scoundrel is to quote great Americans and pass off those ideals as his own.

In his defense, Ramirez states, “The tenets of bigotry, prejudice and racism are predicated on ignorance, absurdity and generalization.” So why, Mr. Ramirez, in your cartoons, is every public school kid depicted as an idiot with his finger stuck up his nose? Why are all union members portrayed as fat slobs with T-shirts and hard hats? Why are all Democrats shown as immoral, unethical, partisan fools, and all Republicans shown as models of purity and virtue?

DAVID M. PERKIN

Redondo Beach