AFS Cinema
Valby Got Only What She Was Looking For
RECEIVED Thu., June 3, 2010
Dear Editor,
Re: “The State of Utopia” [Books, May 28]: I think Karen Valby picked an extremely small group of uneducated individuals and coerced the story she wanted to write. She saw in Utopia exactly what she wanted to see. I have lived there 20 years and raised two children there. The comment about everyone drinking together is inaccurate. My 16- and 19-year-old children have never had a drop of alcohol, as well as a lot of their friends.
As for being racist, Utopians are no more racist than others. I was raised in a much, much larger small town, and the people in Utopia are not much different than my hometown or several other Texas towns I have lived in. Some use racist terms to express their dislike for a person because of the person's actions or policies, not just because they are black or white. People everywhere use that term because they are uneducated and lack the vocabulary to adequately express exactly what they dislike about a person, not literally their color. It is not as though they dislike any particular race as a whole. People in Utopia are unhappy with the policies of the current president, so some of them use the "N" word because they can't communicate verbally their disdain for Obama. I think the opinion in Utopia of a black president would be very different if Colin Powell had been elected. Valby is so concerned with racial bias but didn't mind publishing a biased summation of a whole community based on the information she collected from a select few.
Karen Valby, use a more scientific method next time you research a story, not just pick a small group of same-sex carbon copies. Don't avoid most of the women. Utopians aren't any different than most other Texans.
Re: “The State of Utopia” [Books, May 28]: I think Karen Valby picked an extremely small group of uneducated individuals and coerced the story she wanted to write. She saw in Utopia exactly what she wanted to see. I have lived there 20 years and raised two children there. The comment about everyone drinking together is inaccurate. My 16- and 19-year-old children have never had a drop of alcohol, as well as a lot of their friends.
As for being racist, Utopians are no more racist than others. I was raised in a much, much larger small town, and the people in Utopia are not much different than my hometown or several other Texas towns I have lived in. Some use racist terms to express their dislike for a person because of the person's actions or policies, not just because they are black or white. People everywhere use that term because they are uneducated and lack the vocabulary to adequately express exactly what they dislike about a person, not literally their color. It is not as though they dislike any particular race as a whole. People in Utopia are unhappy with the policies of the current president, so some of them use the "N" word because they can't communicate verbally their disdain for Obama. I think the opinion in Utopia of a black president would be very different if Colin Powell had been elected. Valby is so concerned with racial bias but didn't mind publishing a biased summation of a whole community based on the information she collected from a select few.
Karen Valby, use a more scientific method next time you research a story, not just pick a small group of same-sex carbon copies. Don't avoid most of the women. Utopians aren't any different than most other Texans.
Sydney Killough