Concern for social justice is a national imperative

Walter Williams' op-eds have concerned me for a long time. But his recently printed views on social injustice compelled me to submit this rebuttal. Why are Williams' views so disturbing? Because he purports to deny the existence of social injustice.

Williams contends that social justice policies are feckless because we are not equal, we cannot be made equal and we should not be made equal. He even brazenly asserts that social justice policies are "lunacy." How can Williams, a man of color, dare to offend the legacies MLK, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and all the other brave men and women who took to the streets, some giving their lives, seeking social justice in order to create more opportunities for people like him?

Williams goes so far as to imply that the glaringly disproportionate prison populations of men of color might just be because men of color are the ones committing the most crimes. In this fashion, Williams outright ignores the stark history in this country of police profiling, racially charged police misconduct, racially unbalanced law enforcement, disparate sentencing laws that hit hard in minority communities and the difficulty impoverished criminal defendants sometimes face in obtaining equally effective legal representation.

When Williams staunchly proclaims that we are not in fact equal, he refuses to even acknowledge that our unequal social, economic and political selves are due in large part to previous and, in some cases, still existing racially discriminatory government policy and law, not to mention the insidious, but virtually invisible, reality of "white privilege" in this country's public and private sectors.

So, Mr. Williams, how does one vanquish institutional racism but for a persistent and tireless fight for social justice? You call social justice "lunacy." I call it a national emergency.

Mike Fanella

Arlington Heights