Acknowledging racism

I was astonished to find out yesterday that 53 percent of people who took the Freedom Forum's 2005 First Amendment poll don't believe people should be able to publicly say things that offend racial groups. While I believe racial intolerance is an unhealthy characteristic of any society, I think ignoring the fact that it exists is even more harmful. A problem can't be addressed if we fail to acknowledge it. “In a nutshell, I understand that in trying to address ills of society we cannot be passive, or arrogant in our efforts. Clearly, if we are, we only serve to make our challenge harder, then isolated, then non-existent,” Muslim comedian Preacher Moss says on his Web site. I recently interviewed Moss about his "End of Racism" comedy and lecture tour for the Peninsula Daily News in Port Angeles, Wash. Both in a poignant and sometimes politically incorrect way, Moss talks about the need to accept that racism exists before being able to change.

-- Vanessa Renee Casavant, City University of New York-Hunter College, Peninsula Daily News, Port Angeles, Wash.