Sir, – Brian Boyd (“Can you be racist against white people?”, August 11th) seems to imply that you cannot on the basis that, due to their historical track record, white people deserve everything they get.
Surely once one agrees that all people are born equal it must follow that it is wrong to stereotype people of any race or colour and that past wrongdoing by one race against another is a function of opportunity rather than relative innate evilness. If we are all equal, we all contain within our race people who, given the opportunity, will abuse people of other races. You cannot demonise one race and espouse equality at the same time.
The same is true of gender and age. One of the greatest of modern ironies is the use of the term “pale, male and stale” by people who set themselves up as opponents of racism, sexism and ageism. – Yours, etc,
SEAN O DONNELL,
Monkstown, Co Dublin.