I am writing in response to the Jan. 25 letter to the editor from Corey Glenn. Mr. Glenn asserts the USA Today poll of 1,400 white people’s views on black people was a ” … racially biased piece of … trash.”

First of all, I don’t know how you can say the printing of a fact-based piece of information is racism.

I personally agree with you that the people who said they still have negative feelings against black people are ” … an ignorant, opinionated population….”

As a matter of fact, I probably would have stronger words than that for them. But I can’t see blaming The Northern Star for reporting what had already been reported by newspapers across the country.

And those people who got to express their views are guaranteed that right under the same constitution that proclaims equality for all people.

Although I do not think we have come as far as we need to toward equality, I also do not think this end will be achieved by denying someone else the right to express his opinion.

I think racism is a horrible, ugly crime, and it is wrong no matter who it comes from. I have many friends who happen to be black, and never really considered their color.

Since I have come to NIU, I have been faced with a lot more racial tension than I did where I came from. This has caused me to really think about the way black Americans are treated and what I personally can do to make things better.

But sometimes I wonder how much some black people want peace. When I see a sweatshirt that says “It’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand,” I wonder if some people really want white people to understand them.

I heard someone in my residence hall say today (a black woman) that she didn’t think she wanted the races to have harmony.

This scares me as much as the ignorant white people who have negative feelings toward blacks just because of their color.

I wonder, too, that if black people were polled, how many of them could say honestly they have no ill feelings against whites, solely based on their color.

Think about it.

Laura Hall

Junior

Nursing