Mr. Don Siemsen made several points in last week’s Independent Reporter that I wanted to take issue with. I settled on one: “Where are the black leaders who should be encouraging black people to just follow the instructions of the law enforcement officer.”

Guessing that Mr. Siemsen and I are about the same age, 74, let’s assume for a moment that black people of our generation had carefully obeyed the law, the white man’s law. Where would black people be or not be today?

Black children would be in segregated, rundown schools. Black families would be in isolated neighborhoods, ghettos, and nigger towns, a reality that still exists in some communities today. If they wanted to attend a movie theater, they might have to sit in nigger heaven, a high balcony apart from white viewers. I know this in part because as a child I went to such a theater with such a balcony. They would not visit downtown after dark, because their life might be at risk if they did. They would not dare to use a white restroom. They would go thirsty rather than drink from a white water fountain. They would not sit at white-only counters in drug stores and diners. They would not eat at white-only restaurants. They would be denied lodging at white-only hotels and motels. They could not go swimming in white pools. Courts rejected them as jurors. They would be disenfranchised by various underhanded means. If they did not pay proper respect to a white man or white woman, they might end up hanging from a tree. Proper respect defined, of course, by white standards.

The above is but a small sampling of where black Americans would be or not be today had they adhered assiduously to white men’s laws. Thanks to many people, white and black, much racial discrimination has been eliminated today, BUT not all of it, not by any stretch.

I do not apologize for using the word “nigger” above. It offers a much needed and stark reminder of the ugliness of racist elements in our history, as much as we would like to deny it, hide it, excuse it, or project it on to others. If people want to end the divisiveness in this country today, they must confront our historical realities, not always a pleasant task but a necessary one.

One should also note that our laws brought numerous degradations on Native Americans, Asians, and Hispanics. If people of color are slow to follow the instructions of law enforcement officers, one might take a moment to consider WHY? It might have something to do with the suffering they have endured under white men’s law.

Jerry Marsh

Ellsworth