Hey, Etienne Fields, writer of "Affirmative action ban seeks to defend Americans' right to be racist" (SN 4/11), you have in your own words shown "time and time again" what promoters of affirmative action have done, by claiming that anyone opposed to your view is a racist.

You claim that there has never been a ballot proposal that would prohibit affirmative action for women. But wait. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, lists sex in the language of what biases should no longer be favored. But you don't hear women crying bloody murder, because most levelheaded people see it as a step on the path to equality rather than a conspiracy to oppress the black man.

Notice I don't say minorities, because many others, such as Asian Americans, are discriminated against in some places far worse than white men, solely because their families pass down a tradition of the importance of education far more than any other ethnicity.

The MCRI is a move for equality, but just as white men defended discrimination in the past, other groups are doing it now. Because you are the one on the benefiting side of the discrimination, you want to protect it. It is only natural, but please realize — you're a racist.

Brian Mack
political theory and constitutional democracy senior