Editor,
The other day I returned some books to our wonderful library. On the table was a copy of the Democrat-Gazette with a front page article about the “Unite the Right” rally in front of the White House to protest the lack of civil rights for white supremacists.
I picked up the paper, happy that thousands of sane and good people opposed this rally, and threw the paper back on the table with an “Ugh.”
A woman sitting at the table asked me what my “Ugh” was about.
I said: “Racism.” Now, folks, I do not lie. It is a bad habit to lie and anyway, reality is scary enough for me.
“We have racism here?”
I said, “You mean Eureka Springs?” She: “Yes.”
I said, “Ma’am, all of us white people are racists, either recovering or in denial.” I wanted to explain that all of us white folk were raised in a white supremacist system, and then, she actually said, “My best friend is black.”
I tried to respond, but she made the sign of the cross at me and told me to take my negativity outside. Then she complained about me to the librarian.
Racism is alive and well even in good ole liberal Eureka Springs.
T.A. Laughlin