According to this definition it seems that all modern societies are civil. So pretty much no other country that people come from will be uncivilized. So really, people who come to this country are not acting uncivilized. So the writer really makes no sense.

I'd also venture to say that many other cultures and countries are more civilized, by the definition, than the United States. The US is not known for being polite, courteous, gallant, and chivalrous. Japan might be a better example of a group that exhibits these qualities.

So if the statement makes no sense and it's not true in any way, can the statement then be really anything other than racism? Isn't racism and prejudice littered with lies, statements with little truth, and ignorance? Isn't the statement saying "if you don't act like me and follow the rules I think are right, then you shouldn't be here"? Is this attitude tolerable? We don't generally tolerate this attitude as a society. We do tolerate people saying these things (as we totally defend our rights to free speech) but we do not tolerate it as being a prevalent thought in our society.

All of this rushed through my mind when I read her statement and I told her how I felt …. I felt that the statement was filled with hate and racism. That perhaps she should reconsider.

Instead of a dialog between her and me I got an irate reply. Here are two excerpts from her next e-mail:

"Yes, I've never denied that I have a certain amount of racism in my opinions."

"I didn't think that [my statement] was offensive to you personally. If I had, I could've chosen not to include it. But then again, that's also my opinion."

So apparently now her non-sensical original statement is an opinion and it's perfectly okay for it to be racist in nature. Secondly, though she thinks her statements are fine, she's willing to not say them around me.

I don't agree that it is okay to make statements or have opinions that are racist in nature. Everyone has the right to have them, but I also have the right to not associate with people who think that way. Secondly, just because she doesn't make statements around me doesn't mean she isn't a racist. And I would really rather know up front how she feels than her hiding her hate.

In a later unsolicited e-mail she states:

"I certainly don't need to be told that my thoughts are "hateful and filled with racism." If they are, then they are. I make no excuses about it, but it is my OPINION. I don't need the name-calling … And, finally, I certainly don't feel that I deserve it from someone who I've lent support to for the two years that we've known each other."

Apparently stating MY opinion that I felt her statement was filled with racism is name-calling, but her initial racially motivated statement is okay. Through other statements not shown here, she clearly stated that it was not okay for me to directly comment on her opinion. I did comment on her opinion. I didn't name call. Name calling in my book would be directly calling her a name that had nothing to do with what she said. Name calling would be saying something like "you curly haired freak" in response to her statement. Also, she stated that I was not allowed to tell her my opinion on something unless she asked for it first. But yet somehow I'm supposed to put up with her openly racist statements?

In the same e-mail she says:

"I do have biases and I don't deny it. Do you mean that you don't make sure and lock your doors when you hit Overtown?"

I have biases too. I think everyone does. I read somewhere that there are psychologists that believe that categorizing people is inherent to being human. I do categorize people. People are black, white, brown, curly haired, blue-eyed, fat, thin, emaciated, foreign to me. What I try not to do is think that the brown person is bad for being brown or the fat person is bad for being fat or the foreigner is uncivilized by being foreign.

I do lock my doors in Overtown (Overtown is a very poor neighborhood of Miami that has terrible crime statistics and is known for the start of riots). But I do not do that because the neighborhood is primarily black. I do it because the neighborhood is bad, and I fear for my life. Actually, I avoid Overtown. I also lock my doors in certain parts of Little Havana even though they belong to the same race and culture as I do. I have been in black neighborhoods where I feel perfectly safe and I have been in white neighborhoods where I don't. Locking the doors on my vehicle is directly related to the feeling of my safety and not the color of the skin of the people I see outside my window.

"I have a problem with minorities who come to this country and take it for granted. I have a problem when they feel that it is their God-given right to do HERE as they would do THERE. I am a firm believer in the "melting pot", in appreciation for this country and, unfortunately, that doesn't exist here."

First of all, we are all minorities. In fact, the writer is a minority too. There is no 'American' race. The only American race is known as the American Indians. This nation was built on the thought that people had a god-given right to do here whatever they wanted. They left Europe because they were not allowed to practice religion in the way that they chose. So they came here and built a country that gave its citizens the right to think as they like and do as they like with little intervention from the government (granted there's little of that now, we've made way too many laws). The melting pot theory has pretty much been debunked. People come to this country and hold on to their traditions. They lend flavor to the rest of the people here and they on some of the traditions this country has to offer. It has been suggested that the US is much more like a pot with stew than a melting pot. The different items in the stew hold on to their base flavor but take on some flavor of the stew. I like that idea much better than a melting pot. A melting pot is boring and unpalatable. A melting pot has one taste. It would be a world where everyone looked the same and acted the same and had the same values. How utterly boring and bland.

My idea of the stew is more like a paella. Yummm so good.

"I guess I favor families to live and act similarly to mine, people with an ounce of consideration for their fellow neighbors, people who think before acting, people who don't come into my neighborhood and turn it into a dump."

So the statement in one of the last e-mails pretty much says it all. She wants to be around people like her who think like her that act like her and probably to some extent look like her. Apparently anyone that didn't meet these guidelines would turn the neighborhood into a dump.

This is a truly racist comment from a very confused person.

Lastly I guess I would like to say that reading this you might think that the person quoted here was uneducated and ignorant. This person holds a Master's Degree from an accredited American university and according to herself has traveled extensively. It's funny that neither education nor experience makes a person enlightened. Enlightenment comes from self-discovery -- a process that the writer has not yet gone through.

-Yvonne-