This letter is in response to the article entitled ‘Whose  hatchet needs to be buried ?” by Deedee Wright.

Kudos to Ms. Wright!

In conversations with both Mayor Karen Alexander and Councilman Kenneth Hardin, I have come to a respect their leadership. Both have the city of Salisbury at heart.

In the words of a Native American, “one has to walk two miles in my moccasins to understand me …”  One of the problems is that America has a double standard.  Blacks and others are held to European values.

In his book “ Deep Denial,” David Billings says “America is for the white man.” This denial is seen in every aspect of life, even in council meetings, as we speak around the elephant in the room. Institutional racism is alive and active.

Hardin does not think or speak like the privileged class would like. The privileged do not know what it means to live in substandard housing, with the poorest of schools and grocery stores, high unemployment and crime, with few liberated to college. Yet, due to the color of our skin, we are held to mythological falsehoods. White people, says Billings, feel superior to people of Afrikan descent.

Black people witness this abuse every day. We call this the United States, yet we have never been united — rather, separate and not equal, a house divided.

Hardin speaks for nearly 400 years of oppression of black people, being denied access, kept out of the process, kept beneath the ceiling of equality, while the privileged have always had entitlements.

Why should Hardin be held to a different standard when he was elected to serve the people of Salisbury — all people?

Let us take the high road, bury the hatchet and seek to overcome all the issues that divide us — racism, sexism, religion, classism, nationality, socioeconomics, gangs, killings and violence — and join forces to make Salisbury the best location in the nation.

— Dr. Odinga Lawrence Maddox

   Salisbury