Equality vs. equity

Re “Equality must trump ‘equity’” (Feb. 5):

I recommend that Mr. Boddie add America’s universities to those calling the shots on reordering society. They are the source of the ideas that prop up this nonsense of equity trumping equality and other socialist paradigms based on “Marxist dialectic” methods. The dialectic situation of thesis-antithesis combining into a synthesis always confused me. Until later in life I realized that this method is nothing more than people being conned into embracing both ends of a contradiction. Using a contradiction can only give a nonsense answer no matter how erudite, solemn and long the words used to convince us otherwise. Marx and his intellectual mentor Hegel fathered the “dialectical” method that led to a philosophy of history and economics

MALLARD FILLMORE: that in application caused horrendous suffering to billions of people under the reign of communist regimes. Mr. Boddie’s reasoning leads him to use common sense and reject the dialectic and I trust in Mr. Boddie’s experience and intuition.

— Jorge A. Velez, Long Beach

Punishing the folks who have a CCW will not now or ever stop any mass shooting.

— Ronald L. Coats, San Bernardino

1619 Project

Re “Black Americans have a noble history” (Feb. 5):

I commend Mr. Williams for highlighting many important and uplifting moments in the history of Black Americans and I want to thank him for clearing up the common misconception about Uncle Tom. Whenever I hear about a Black conservative being attacked as an “Uncle Tom,” I always wonder if the people hurling these insults ever bothered to read the book. It seems like we do need more actual Black history and literature in our schools, not the false narratives and victimization offered by the 1619 Project.

— Julian Cummings,

Huntington Beach