New discrimination

Dear editor:

I write today about discrimination. Not Jim Crow discrimination that I grew up with in the ’40s and ’60s in Arkansas and the entire nation. Not the discrimination against American Indians (Native Americans) of those years and more. One great-grandmother was one-half Cherokee, so I am familiar with that kind, too.

No, I am concerned about Chinese American discrimination right now due to many, including the president, calling COVID-19 the Chinese virus. Now this country did a despicable thing during World War II in taking away homes and jobs of Japanese-Americans and putting them like cattle in internment camps,

two of which were in Arkansas. We finally paid reparations for that sin. Now hundreds of Chinese Americans are suffering various kinds of discrimination because of unfounded fear and hatred. That is wrong!

And there is the old discrimination toward LGBTQ peoples, which has seen a renewal in recent years. Are they, too, suspect because this virus is so new that anyone “different” from the so-called norm is guilty of spreading it?

This president and this administration have added to the problem. Anti-LGBTQ sentiment seems to be growing within the GOP. The president promised to be a friend to the LGBTQ community, but he has fully embraced anti-LGBTQ groups who are dismantling federal protections and resources. The Department of Justice has filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court in support of anti-LGBTQ lawsuits. The president continues to speak before groups that are anti-LGBTQ in actions, including the Family Research Council. In May, he opposed the FEA, which would add sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act. Also, one-third of the circuit court judges he has recommended have demonstrated a history of bias against LGBTQ cases.

Discrimination is still going about a land that supposes total equality like a roaring lion. The only wall that lasts is the wall of love. God forgive us for our hypocrisy! John W. “Doc” Crawford Hot Springs