LETTER: Safety Sense

To the Editor: When you need to get from one place to another, especially late in the evening, do you usually walk? I bet you take Escort, get a ride or bike as fast as your condition allows. If forced to walk, you would, at the very least, worry about crime. Considering a large proportion of this area's population is black, to paraphrase Dan Smith, are you telling the community that the people of West Philadelphia are oriented toward theft? I'll assume this is not your intention. It's just the reality of the urban environment. If Discovery Discs isolated the CDs purchased by African-Americans and then replaced those inserts with photocopies, there would be little doubt as to its nature as a racist incident. If, however, they placed the photocopies on the shelves for CDs that were consistently stolen, they simply responded with a valid solution. Would Smith prefer an in-store guard eyeing possible thieves? And I wonder who has the more racist view? It seems a bit patronizing, the ease with which Smith defines the musical predilections of entire races. I've been nervous in parts of Philadelphia, parts of rural Maine, parts of Chinatown and parts of Los Angeles -- predominantly African-American, white, Asian and Hispanic areas, respectively. I've also had a great time in these places -- because of the situations, not the people involved. If you look hard enough, you'll see enough of what you want in anything. Finding racism where it does not clearly exists solves nothing. It closes more minds and creates more division. SANG SHIN College '90