To the editor:

In response to Sheila Qualls’s letter in which she challenges the right of “lily white liberals” to question her, an African American woman, I have three points.

1. Ms. Qualls began her Sept. 30 presentation by asserting the critical importance of each student being regarded as an individual, not confined or assessed by categories like race. This categorizing, she declared, was what critical race theory would do. And she worried that it would cause racial divides and make white children distressed and guilty about the simple fact of their skin color.

It ill becomes a person with these concerns about racial categorizing to use a tired racial tag like “lily white liberal.” It stands in direct opposition to the first point of her own presentation and sounds like the very thing she says she is fighting against.

2. Ms. Qualls is offended that “lily white liberals” are telling her what to think. In fact, that is not happening. People are not telling her what to think. They are telling her what they think. The right to challenge and disagree is about as basic an American right as any that can be named. I am pretty sure that no one is excluded, not even “lily white liberals.”

If, after giving a highly controversial and adversarial presentation, she finds it disturbing that people want to respond, she really needs to assess the way the presentation was conducted. If the only goal was to hear from people who agreed with her, they should have screened the audience at the door and admitted only the already converted.

3. Further, the fact that there was no question-and-answer period meant that there was no possibility of moving toward any points of mutuality or even clarity. It was a “take it or leave it” presentation. I have never attended another presentation so deliberately controversial that did not allow for questions from the audience. It showed a lack of courtesy, courage and curiosity and was a sorry model for anyone who believes that education’s base rests on the free exchange of ideas.

Joan Gittens

Russell