Beware revisionism

This is a response to a recent letter by George Barney. He suggested that systemic racism is not a problem in America and for those who think it is, we should learn from Japanese Americans how to overcome racism, as the Japanese did after being restrained in U.S. internment camps from 1942-1945 during World War II.

Let me acknowledge that imprisoning 120,000 Japanese American citizens was an atrocity and a stain on our country's history. No amount of reparations they each received can atone for what they endured. But using them as an example for other minorities to follow is an insult at best.

Let's not rewrite history. Countries fighting on the side of Hitler in World War II, believed in racial purity. They believed the U.S. was a country filled with Jews, Blacks and white European mutts who didn't have the fighting strength to defeat Hitler and the so-called imperial, pure-race countries. That included Japan, which declared war on the U.S. by bombing Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Today, America's 328 million-plus people make up one of the most diverse countries on the face of the earth, while Japan's 126 million citizens still clings to racial purity, by claiming their country is 98% Japanese.

From a historical perspective, slavery and the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans are two of the worst atrocities ever faced in our country. I sometimes wonder if any other groups of people could have survived the 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow, segegation, poor education, inferior housing, lower paying jobs, that African Americans have?

Many other groups came here. Many were poor and broke. However, the difference is they became equal partners in the economic successes of America, a country built on the back of free labor. No posturing or redefining history will ever change these facts.

Daryll D. Fletcher

Ivanhoe