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Pitts' Colorblindness Weakens His Column

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 31, 2008

Lose The Role Of Victim

Regarding "It's The Color Green That Separates Us" (Other Views, May 27):
Leonard Pitts has jumped to the head of the ranks of poverty pimps like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton by claiming that not only black poverty, but also white poverty, is due to the sinister workings of rich and powerful whites. Adding hypocrisy to untruth, he accuses poor white voters in West Virginia of bigotry because 20 percent did not vote for Obama because he is black, but fails to mention that 90 percent of blacks did vote for Obama.

It is about time liberals stop pushing victimization as the root cause of black American poverty and concentrate their efforts on lack of education, inadequate training for today's job requirements and a destructive culture.

GEORGE POST

Clearwater

Cuts Both Ways

Perhaps Leonard Pitts should have an impartial editor read his column before he airs his views in public. Pitts rails at West Virginia because two of every 10 voters said race was a major factor in how they cast their vote. He states that he's not angry with them. "I feel sorry for them," he says, but goes on to say that's not how it's meant.

Apparently in Pitts' mind, the fact that, nationwide, nine out of 10 black voters cast their votes for Obama is not based on race because it was not mentioned in his article. Thus, we are left to draw this conclusion from this article: If you are white and did not vote for Obama, you must be a racist and a bigot.

DAN HOLMER

Brandon

Look At Big Picture

I really enjoy reading Leonard Pitts' articles. He is very enlightening on many views and has many good points in some articles as well. However, in his points regarding the West Virginia primary being swung toward Hillary Clinton due to "poor white" voters, he should take into consideration that Barack Obama won South Carolina due to "poor black" voters as well.

I'm a native of West Virginia, with family roots there back to the early 1800s, and from a so-called "poor white" ancestry. Pitts should read more about the true start of the American Civil War from a non-bigoted point of view.

JOHN SILVER

Lakeland

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