Letters

Symbol of Oppression

Jan 4, 2021

To the editor:
I am half-Jewish, which would have been enough to get me exterminated in Nazi Germany. So I am relieved that columnist Ed Townsend (“Here & There Beyond The News,” December 29) thinks Nazi symbols should be banned.
By the same token, Confederate flags should also be banned — not because they reflect hateful views held by the individuals displaying them, but because of their impact on other people.
Mr. Townsend, I guarantee that if 50 percent of your DNA came from a person of African American descent, you would feel very differently about the Confederate flag. It is a symbol of oppression.
Why would anyone espousing, as you write, “our values of justice and inclusion” want to make our Black neighbors feel unsafe and unwelcome in their own country?