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Columnist Walter Williams typically claims that when things go wrong, liberals are to blame. In his latest screed (Liberals want blacks in perpetual state of grievance, Daily Reflector, Dec. 31), he also conjures a liberal conspiracy: keep blacks stirred up so they vote Democratic.

Williams apparently believes that to garner votes, liberals instigated voter suppression, opposed minimum wage hikes and prompted recent shootings of black men. I suspect that his delusional accusation is a paranoid reflection of Republicans strategy of keeping tea partiers in a state of agitation.

Williams claim that the National Education Association and New Yorks Mayor Bill de Blasio (whose wife is black and children are bi-racial) are aligned against black parents and students defies reason. Meanwhile he skirts the issue of public funding for private schools. Many conservatives want to abolish public education, and claim that vouchers offer poor blacks a way out of bad schools a debatable proposition. But resisting public funding of private schools is not a racial matter, even though Williams wants to make it one. (Mayor de Blasios action, affecting three privately-run charters, was not the hatchet job Williams implies.)

Williams says liberals want to undermine established authority, by which he means the police. Granted, conservatives tend to support recently publicized police actions while liberals tend to question them. Questioning authority is an inherent right sustained by the Constitution. Meanwhile conservatives continually criticize government, the IRS, most federal agencies and the president. Are they trying to undermine established authority?

Williams says that liberals often have demeaning attitudes toward blacks. Liberals support civil and voting rights for blacks against stiff conservative resistance. What conservative groups work to achieve rights for black Americans?

Yes, well-intentioned people can be condescending toward those they support. They should stop it. But stereotyping, political oppression and hate cause far more damage.

DON CLEMENT

Greenville

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Letter: Liberals support civil rights