LETTERS

He Hatin' Me (Letters, March 23) says African-Americans are 12 percent of the population but they comprise 44 percent of the death-row inmates.

Common sense says if you do the crime you do the time.

He Hatin' Me says four out of five African-Americans get turned down for home loans.

People are not turned down for home loans because of the color of their skin; people are turned down because instead of working real hard in school or in life they chose to slide by or they somehow have screwed up their credit, like yours truly.

He Hatin' Me says, Have you ever heard of slavery?

Well, He Hatin' was not enslaved, nor was any other black person in the last 400 years; using that as a crutch or an excuse is idiotic and only furthers your lack of self-startedness. Everyone starts from scratch. Contrary to your really ignorant belief, most white people are not born with a silver spoon. You make it happen—if you do not make it happen, then it does not happen. Duh.

You should have left that paragraph out all together, He Hatin' Me, because this paragraph made you look like a total idiot and it's bad for young black children to be fed this propaganda.

Signed,

Editor's note:
What's that you say? No black person was enslaved during the last 400 years? Well, the Emancipation Proclamation was actually signed in 1863, and the Civil War was fought from 1861-1865. Your math's a bit off, not to mention your grasp of American history ...

A wise man once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Don Hall (Letters, March 30) should pay attention to those words, and read the Constitution, and pick up a dictionary once in a while. Don Hall talks about facts and statistics, but doesn't provide any. He also seems to see only what he wants to see even when the facts prove him wrong.

Like I said before, I worked as a concert promoter. We booked all kinds of acts. Every night a hard-core punk or metal show played we had to break up a fight or restrain someone with a weapon of some kind for the police. No it didn't make the news or the papers but it happened every night. We booked a few hip-hop shows as well. I have to say I saw more violence at punk shows than any hip-hop show. For some reason the news only shows violence created by "scary black people" and their music.

You say you don't hear about it in the news? On December 8, 2004, Darrell Abbott, a.k.a. Dimebag Darrell, formerly of Pantera, was shot and killed by a crazed fan who also shot two other people at the show. This was in the news (trust me, I still have the newspaper clipping), but you apparently ignored it. They use tons of profanity in their albums, that's a fact. They engaged in drug and alcohol use, that's a fact. Violence occurred at their shows, that is most certainly a fact. In 1978 Simon Ritchie, a.k.a. Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, was accused of killing his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. In 1987 an Australian man claimed Bob Dylan's songs made him want to beat his mother to death. Charles Manson claimed to receive prophetic messages from the Beatles telling him to go out and kill. I could go on, but I think you're getting the point (unless of course you're ignoring this).

Why don't people claim the Beatles' music promotes violence? I'll tell you why, because the Beatles were nice white boys with funny haircuts. Paranoids like you only seem to focus on music that "scary black people" make.

You stated, "There is no other form of music that generates the mass negative response that this crap does." Ahem ... when jazz came out there was just as much irrational paranoia—after all, jazz was made by "scary black people." You also said "they walk around in knockoff prison garb like it's some kind of fashion statement." Well, what's the difference between that and Brian Warner, a.k.a. Marilyn Manson, wearing a Nazi S.S. uniform onstage? Marilyn Manson openly embraces that same media attention you claim only gangsta rappers do.

Well, I'm sorry your neighbor is an asshole, but in addition to the First Amendment he's protected by the Fourth Amendment. The government can't tell him what he can and can't listen to in his own home any more than they can tell you what you can watch on TV (although I'm assuming it's Cops, the 11 o'clock news, or something else portraying "scary black people"). We cannot pass any law denying him his right to listen to ANY kind of music. There's the Ninth and 14th amendments protecting that right. If they ban gangsta rap, then metal and punk are next. I will not let that happen, and I will single-handedly wage a one- man war against you or any other Nazi Republican who tries! The only thing that needs to be kept on a short leash is your paranoia. After all, it's only music.

Signed,

Regarding "Genre Buster, Spike Lee's Inside Man dodges caper-film cliches" (March 23) by Mike D'Angelo:

There is a saying about he who laughs last. Mike D'Angelo writes in the Las Vegas Weekly article about Denzel Washington's character, Detective Keith Frazier, not knowing the difference between Algeria and Albania. Perhaps he should watch the movie once more. It was Armenia, NOT Algeria. You see Mike, Algeria is in Africa, Armenia is in Asia. By the way, Albania is in Europe. Even Coach on Cheers knew that one, if anyone recalls that he was good in geography due to his little songs such as: "Albania, Albania, you border on the Adriatic. And your chief export is chrome."

In the article "Jet Takes Off For Miami" (March 30), Light Group Managing Partner Andy Masi was erroneously given the additional title of chef. Brian Massie is executive chef of the Light Group's Fix and Stack restaurants.

In an article that is not about bears, "Titus-Ryan Friend Tells Her Version" (March 30), we misused the word "grizzly" in the subhead.

In an On the Scene story (March 23), a poet identified as Mike Talbert was, in fact, Dahn Shaulis.