In Response to: Capital Crimes

I was happy to have Professor Rouse’s piece on capitalizing the “b” in black and brown as a racial descriptor. I seemed to be waiting for an explanation. However, rather than use a jumble of descriptors, which strikes me as silly, why not avoid all of them? None of them are accurate. All of them reinforce identification by skin color.

We avoid many descriptors, like short, obese, hunched-over, which like skin color do not describe a person, only an appearance. Fine to use color where necessary, for law enforcement as an example, or picking someone out of a crowd.

Let’s be color-blind and get on with chipping away at racism.

John Steel ’56
Santa Barbara, Calif.