Now to me, hate fliers appearing in a community is nothing new. Everywhere I’ve ever lived there’s been some type of incident at some time.
But a letter in today’s Bainbridge Review, criticizing their coverage of a recent hate flier incident on the south end of the island, Racist Fliers Hit Island Doorsteps got my ire going. I guess that is exactly what it was supposed to do:
“How about being objective? Lots of white people on Bainbridge Island are pro-white and racialist (sic) in private. Your liberal view of things only represents the vocal minority, not the silent majority.”
This island is about 95% white (I’m guessing, but I don’t think this statistic is too far off…) and I suppose that there may be pro-white and “racialist” people living here. But I would hope, after the role that this island has played in history, including being the first place where Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II (as portrayed in island resident David Guterson’s novel Snow Falling on Cedars ), that this community would have learned and grown in its understanding of diversity. Even at that time, there were whites on the island who fought against the government’s order. A silent majority of racists? I hope not. I may be wrong but I hope I’m right.
