Giving racists what they want

To the editor:

(re: “Hate-filled vandalism returns to Seton Park,” Feb. 24)

The amount of attention being given to the scrawling of a racial slur in Spuyten Duyvil Playground and Seton Park is the equivalent of wanting to cut someone’s hands off for stealing a chicken.

I also must object to letters by Jennifer Scarlott (re: “NYPD must investigate hate,” Feb. 24) and Ron Wegsman (re: “We need far more representatation,” Feb. 24).

So, in the name of the common sense, I would like to point out some facts to The Riverdale Press and anyone reading this.

First, let’s be very clear: We do not know the identity of the scratchitti “artist.” We don’t know if he was white.

Every one of us has heard young men using the “N-word” — with an “A” at the end — on each other. Loudly. And in public. Almost as a term of affection. They are entitled to freedom of speech.

But why are there no protests by Black Lives Matter or any other racist watchdog group?

There is a group called “The Black Israelites.” I’ve seen them all over the place in Manhattan, spewing hatred and venom about the white man. There is an elderly Black man in my neighborhood whose racist diatribes include, “I have no problem stealing from Whitey because Whitey steals from me.”

I happen to think the Black Israelites and this man are entitled to freedom of speech, and would not label them hate crimes. But again, where is Black Lives Matter? Where are the press conferences and the outrage?

In the late 1990s, a Black couple was accused of keeping a teenaged Black girl in their basement, chained like a slave. The story very quickly faded. Where’s the outrage at Black-on-Black crime?

Ms. Scarlott did not specify in her letter what “other words and phrases” were scribbled in other parts of Spuyten Duyvil Playground. I cannot conclude it was racially motivated unless I know what they are.

While I am glad Mr. Wegsman is happy about having a Black representing him, I take exception to his statement. Posted on the front page of The Press on Feb. 24, is there not a picture of the Dinowitzes and Bronx borough president Vanessa Gibson, denouncing the graffiti at Bruce Silverman Athletic Fields? What color are the Dinowitzes?

White supremacists have the right to march through Fort Tryon Park, giving their opinions in the same manner as the Black Israelites.

Our city, state and country are facing some of the biggest challenges in their history. Ballooning deficits. Rising unemployment. A shaky recovery from a horrific pandemic. Lunatics in this city attacking and killing completely innocent people, completely at random — people whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Skyrocketing inflation. A war in Europe.

I could fill 10 of these letters with our problems. Is all this attention to hateful graffiti written in the dead of a very cold winter in a park hardly anyone is using now by a person who is, as of now, anonymous truly necessary?

And while I think Michael Hinman is both a fine and honorable editor and person — and I believe deeply in freedom of the press — does The Riverdale Press not understand that it is giving this individual exactly what he or she wants with all this press coverage?

Nat Weiner

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