The author's response to a "Tunnel" letter

The column "Tunnel of Oppression reinforces victimhood," which first ran on this blog on February 14, and was printed by the Georgia Red and Black newspaper on February 23, elicited an immediate reader response. Included in the blog post immediately previous to this one was an email from a reader who disagreed on many issues.

Here is the author's response:

Thanks for the well-thought-out response. I am glad to hear that my column provoked you to consider one of the many issues facing our society today. My response is simply this: there is NO group in America today which can qualify as "oppressed." Driving into the heads of college students that every non-white-Christian group in America is oppressed is simply perpetuating an untruth for the sole purpose gaining special treatment.

If you carefully read the column, you saw that the quotes around the words "minority" and "victim" were juxtaposed with the term GROUPS. I contest the idea that any of the so-called minority or victim's-rights groups (led by Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc) represent either those they claim to speak for, or the victims of any oppressive behavior in the first place. As you say, blacks are a minority. So are American Indians, which I am. So are hispanics. However, being a minority does not grant them special treatment or a greater voice than the majority in an open, democratic nation.

It is clear that I am not arguing that it is "a better solution to have people less educated about something." However, what I am saying is that immersion misinformation is wrong, and that is just what this experience provides. The academic society that brought us this is the same one that waxes apologetic over the "religion of peace" while violent Islamists burn Christians alive in Nigeria (happened yesterday, 100 dead); they are the same ones that defend the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union, and blame capitalists for all of the ills in this world; they are the same ones who would put Saddam Hussein back in the seat of power in Iraq tomorrow, if it were in their grasp to do so, because they hate the Judeo-Christian beacon of freedom in this world which America can be precisely because of the many different types of people here, because of the lack of oppression of people regardless of race, gender, or religion, and because of the backbone of this nation--a quiet majority which continues to labor thanklessly to make and keep this country great, and which continues to do so while being called "oppressors" and "victimizers" by those who wish to be treated differently and specially, but who do not want to do what it takes to be successful.

Thanks again for your response, and please feel free to write with any more thoughts or opinions. You can also see the UGA College Republicans blog, where you will doubtless find several more provocative discourses.

--J.P. Emanuel