In the October correspondence section, Ernest Stableford says, “You owe your readers an apology for not editing out the racist remarks from [Gregory] Frederick’s . . . essay.” If an apology is called for, it should be from Stableford to Frederick. Anyone who can refer to “the clichéd guise of a victimized descendent of slaves (yawn)” has no knowledge of history and not a drop of feeling for his fellow human beings.
Stableford’s complaints about how Frederick described white men in prison were foolish. Frederick’s comments were neither negative nor positive, but rather sensitive observations of the varieties of suffering in prison. It makes sense that white prisoners, in general, having had a different outside life from that of many black prisoners, bring different worries and feel different terrors inside.
Stableford further says that Frederick’s “view of prison as a metaphor for society at large is testament to the paranoia . . . one expects from racists.” The fact is, prisons do work as a metaphor for society at large. The same hierarchy exists in both: the rulers and the ruled, the favored and the ignored. The economics that directs goods and services only in certain directions, the exploitation of the weak by the strong and the lucky, as well as efforts toward fairness and small examples of human goodness — all these are present to extreme degrees in prison. Prison is a compressed version of society’s tensions and a testament to its failures.
Carol Ferry
Rye, New York
Because The Sun publishes good confessional writing and encourages neophyte submissions, I expect an occasional whiny, narcissistic piece filled with self-pity and finger pointing. I was stunned, however, to come across one laced with obviously racist remarks: the Readers Write essay on “Privacy” by prisoner Gregory Frederick [July 1999].
Under the clichéd guise of a victimized descendant of slaves (yawn), Frederick purported to write about privacy. His irrelevant remarks about what most white guys in prison are like, however, brought his real agenda to the surface. And his view of prison as a metaphor for society at large is testament to the paranoia, stunted imagination, lack of vision, and caustic view of social responsibility one expects from racists.
The Sun’s editors ought to apply more discrimination in what they choose to publish. Would they, for example, consider printing a white convict’s deprecating view of blacks in prison? How about Frederick’s views on white women? Probably not. But a black man, especially an incarcerated one, taking a shot at white men: that’s provocative social commentary. Sorry, but no. Racist is racist, no matter which way the shot is fired across the color line.
You owe your readers an apology for not editing out the racist remarks from Frederick’s otherwise well-written, if unintentionally revealing, essay.
Ernest Stableford
York Harbor, Maine
