LETTERS: RACISM STILL EVIDENT

To the editor:

Recently when I was at the Arena Park antique market looking for some old goodies, I cam across a very smart young man from another country. I asked him what he did for a living. He said he taught mathematics at a community college in Southern Illinois. I asked him why he didn't work in the Cape Girardeau area. He told me an interesting story which confirmed my worst suspicions.

After completing graduate studies at Southern Illinois University, this young man applied to 23 Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois area institutions for the job of a mathematics teacher. He didn't receive even one invitation for an interview. He said to me, "You know, I have all the credentials and qualifications. I speak excellent English. If only they gave me a chance to be interviewed, I would have impressed them. But I never got that chance."

I asked him how he managed to get his current job. He said, "You know, my name on the application form was blatantly foreign sounding. I realized this was why I had not been invited for an interview. I Americanized my name so it could now be mistaken for a white person's name. I sent the same resume to the same 23 institutions. Within a week I had 13 invitations for an interview. That is how I got my job."

Racism isn't six feet under in America. It has merely gone underground. I believe it is often unconscious. The person suffering from this malady isn't necessarily aware of it. If we ask those 13 people who invited the young foreign mathematician for an interview after he Americanized his name if they were racists, they would vehemently deny it. Chances are they didn't even know that they had committed a racist act. You see, all unconscious beliefs, opinions and prejudices are betrayed only by our actions.

This is the reality all nonwhite people have to face in this country today. Colored people no longer have to fear someone in white-hooded robes burning crosses on their front yards anymore, But they better be wary of their decent-looking white bosses, neighbors and friends in three-piece suits. This situation is far worse than any blatant racism colored people had to endure before now. Now they don't know who their real enemies are. The flip side of the coin is that since the perpetrators aren't always aware of their racist behavior, they are more indignant at the charges of racism. They get terribly hurt and angry whenever someone brands them as racist. But they were judged by what they did, not what they said. Actions always speak louder than words.

What happened at Texaco is a classic example. Texaco's president personifies this pernicious phenomenon in the American public life. A lawsuit by African American employees charging racial discrimination had already been on the docket for two years when the scandal blew up. The Texaco president thought nothing of it, did nothing to investigate it and offered no remedy -- not until the secret tapes of racial slurs were released. Now he apologizes loudly that Texaco was wrong in what it did to African American employees. His offers for settlement seemed to be driven more by fear of boycott of Texaco than by a genuine change of heart. The lesson for African Americans is this: Do not count on your employers to treat you fair and right. You have got to keep fighting till eternity for you to be treated like everyone else. Your reward? High blood pressure.

Racism, blatant or hidden, practiced by whites, blacks, browns or yellows, is a blight on humanity. It is the cancer that is eating at the soul of America. In the long run, it divides the nation along color lines. It breeds disrespect for law. It causes alienation among people. It promotes economic inequality and chaos. The only lasting remedy for racism is accepting the fact that we are all children of God. In his eyes we are all equal. In practical terms, a sure antidote to racial prejudice is to get to know the person first. Maybe you will like that person.

K.P.S.KAMATH, M.D.

Cape Girardeau