LETTERS: Friday, March 3, 2000

A Shared history of pain A Shared history of pain To the Editor: Toward the end of her column, Ms. Watson said no one will "ever understand what it means to be a member of a race who has remained strong and has persevered." Now I do not know to whom Ms. Watson was directing this statement, but it is incorrect and misleading. On this campus alone, there are thousands of students who are members of races who have "remained strong and perservered" despite many obstacles placed before them. I myself am Jewish and have a Japanese grandparent, so I like to think I know what it means to be part of a group of people who have a history of hard times. Therefore, I would appreciate it if Ms. Watson would not make such generalized comments like the one she made. Without a doubt, there is much to admire in the history of black people in America. Indeed, their history in this country is extremely unique to that of any other group or race in America. Just please do not think that they are the only ones in this country who have suffered. Seth Finck College '02 To the Editor: I would like to comment on the article titled "Talk held on Nazi use of slave labor" (DP, 2/24/00). The speaker profiled in the article, Miriam Kleiman, alleges that "Germany's economic miracle after World War II was built on the backs of hundreds of thousands of slave laborers." Post-war Germany, however, had almost no industrial infrastructure that was functional and no slave laborers. Its economic successes were much more affected by the Marshall Plan than by slave labor. Thomas McCarron College '74