It Was a Friendly, Smiling Face We Saw, but It <i> Was </i> the Face of Racism
To all the people who wrote letters in last Saturday’s Viewpoint defending Al Campanis’ remarks: You obviously aren’t black and therefore have never felt the sting of racism. There is a definite difference when the shoe is on the other foot. As a matter of fact, I would like for you to walk a mile in mine sometime.
Incidentally, the drug-using athletes who were given another chance inflicted pain upon themselves. In this instance, Mr. Campanis was doing the inflicting.
O.C. SMITH
Los Angeles
Editor’s note: Viewpoint received slightly more than 175 letters in the wake of the Campanis affair , considerably more than on any other issue in recent years. The views expressed broke down roughly as follows: 54% deplored his remarks and applauded his forced resignation; 26% defended Campanis, the man, but not his remarks; 9% deplored his remarks but disagreed with his resignation; 6% defended his remarks (and in most of these cases went far beyond them); 3% blamed Ted Koppel for the whole incident; 1.7% saw it as a “free speech” issue. One writer called it a Communist plot.
More to Read
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.