When I read mayoral candidate Earl Bowerman’s (supposedly humorous) remark at the candidate forum that somehow his darkening age spots might qualify him as a person of color, I was beyond appalled (“Vancouver forum features candidates,” The Columbian, June 24). The context appeared to be Mr. Bowerman’s and Justin Forsman’s contention that, as white men, they were being discriminated against in their quest for public office. The suggestion was that race is merely a matter of skin color, and that racism aimed at people of color didn’t really exist.
This demonstrates a hideous ignorance of the history of being Black in America, with its legacy of enslavement, Jim Crow, lynchings, massacres, and the daily grind of having many of your own countrymen regard you as somehow less than fully human.
I hope Mr. Bowerman will do a little reading into that history before he appears before voters again.
