Dear Editor,

Tim Parkin, in his recent letter (Clarkston News, June 15, 2022), criticizes the young writer who wrote in support of DEI, lamenting what the young writer believes to be a lack of high school preparation for dealing with the more diverse world he experiences outside Clarkston. Parkin asserts that the young writer is wrong, and unskilled in his research.
But it is Parkin’s research and education that are faulty.
Parkin’s comments reflect the ignorance that pervades our society, limiting our ability to assume a stronger leadership and economic role in the diverse international market. Parkin objects to any notion that our nation was formed with systems and institutions designed to be inequitable. Of course, many who deny the societal impacts of unconscious bias and other forms of discrimination seek to whitewash America’s history to defend their own refusals to embrace equity principles.
They contend that enough fairness already exists. While there may be some confirmed bigots in the group, many are innocent victims of the parochial history many of us were taught in grade and high school, usually initiated with the story of a founding father’s cutting down a cherry tree and claiming, “I cannot tell a lie.” We have come to learn that our national leaders do lie—often, and whenever it suits their purpose or political ambitions.
Sadly, many of us have come to embrace, even worship, politicians who model deviant behavior.
The reality is that America’s systems and institutions were designed by our founding fathers—generally wealthy, elite, educated white male landowners—with a primary interest in preserving their own power and elite status by perpetrating inequity. Many of the founding fathers were prominent slave owners. There is little to no evidence that any woman or person of color was involved in any significant way in drafting the Constitution or establishing American democracy, systems or institutions, albeit Betsy Ross has been credited with sewing a flag. Voting for national and local leaders was highly restricted by the founding fathers and their successors, with voting rights denied to blacks and women for more than a century. More laws, regulations, policies and practices, both overt and subtle, were adopted over the years to restrict female, black, Chinese and Hispanic participation in educational, career, military service and many other opportunities available mostly to white males. Of course, white males from wealthy, connected families often benefitted most. Even today, America’s tax system and electoral process favor wealthy, well-connected elites. Clearly, our American system, cloaked in vestiges of democracy, was designed to make some animals more equal than others, forever. Since the inception of the nation, virtually all of the nation’s most prominent institutions have been controlled and staffed by white males, with little female or black or Hispanic participation until the 1970’s—and I do mean little. Even today, the nation’s tax system and electoral process favor wealthy, well-connected elites. It is not an equitable society, regardless of what we choose to believe or ignore.
Parkin indicates his view that the vision of a black male safely walking down the street is incomprehensible in a town like Clarkston. He expresses his resentment that a successful black male has the audacity to send his children to a prestigious private school, a fact that somehow disqualifies the man from advocating a more equitable society. Parkin clumsily attempts to liken equity advocates’ calls for action as akin to encouragement of the kinds of twisted violent acts which have led to the troubles and murders of our children in school. He knows they are not the same. If Parkin had performed more diligent research he would know that many of the nation’s most progressive movements toward decency and equity—such as women’s suffrage, abolition of slavery, civil rights, ending the Viet Nam war, etc., were achieved through the organization and civil disobedience necessary for a critically thinking but frustrated population to address inequitable systems, policies and institutions which powerful elites steadfastly defend and perpetrate with tax dollars, indoctrination and, at times, violence.
It appears that Parkin, and many others like him, has much to learn from intelligent young people like the young man whom he awkwardly criticizes. America is a great nation which has championed many principles oppressive governments around the world continue to resist. Our founding fathers, and many of their successors, included wise, decent and ethical men. But they were merely men, who like most of us, come with some flaws and lapses in judgment and character. Our rightfully proud nation has made some mistakes, and we will make more. It is not unpatriotic to admit this and to seek change to ensure greater equity and ethics in our society. We want our children to be better educated and more critically thinking than our generation. We want them to fight ignorance, and to believe that it is unpatriotic to deny inequities or to support unethical or ignorant “leaders” in any capacity, national, local or at home.

Sincerely,
Mike Fetzer
Clarkston