Pitts’ recent column keeps ' hype alive’

Leonard Pitts Jr’s “A future class in session with whitewashed history,” June 20, is one of the worst columns he - and perhaps anyone - has ever written. And that’s saying a lot given, as Pitts might say, the hog-trough of slop he’s slung over the years.

His juvenile attempt at creating a future classroom of black history can be summed in a word: claptrap. By comparison, it makes Jussie Smollett’s defective yarn of abduction seem Pulitzer worthy. And, sadly, the lessons Pitts continually pontificates are as destructive as the mock one this column presents. Pitts’ columns forsake Rev. Jesse Jackson’s long-ago, uplifting mantra of “keep hope alive” and replace it with “keep hype alive.” He’s worried about a whitewashed history, but, in reality, the world of race relations would be better if his column were to become history.

GREGORY MARSHALL, MARIETTA

Reader: Voting laws meant to erect barriers

I roll my eyes when I see letters to the editor saying how “voters should have ID’s to vote” as a reason for the recent voter suppression laws.

Of course they should have ID’s. They always have. The “election security” laws that were recently passed are not only about ID’s for voters though. They’re about putting up obstacles and making it more difficult to vote for people who have always been considered less than. Voting is a Constitutional right and nothing should be able to hinder a voter from casting their vote. Voting should never be made more difficult for one group of people over another.

Why should it be easier for the privileged to vote than for the not privileged? There is only one reason for this and everyone knows it. It’s so that people more likely to vote for a Democrat because of the bigotry, discrimination and racism that has been aimed at them for centuries will have a more difficult time voting. It’s disingenuous to say otherwise.

MICHAEL DE GIVE, DECATUR

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