A colleague of mine showed me the Sun Journal article about the Jesus Party’s Gospel meeting on Black History Month. Writing as an anti-racist white woman from the Rockland area, I object to that article, which was most probably written with unconsciousness and good intention.

And I object to the editorial staff that allowed racist language to appear in the newspaper. Taken together, those good intentions do not help whites become anti-racist allies. Being an ally means catching these unconscious slurs and speaking up.

The language trivializes the honoring of African-American history, their struggles and the ongoing, unconscious racism in our white-dominant Maine cultures.

“Oreo cookies and chocolate milk,” as symbols of goodwill seem to me to be, on the one hand, patronizing and sentimental and, on the other hand, relating people of color to cookies/chocolate on the outside, vanilla inside, and white milk, flavored to become chocolate, and, therefore, dehumanizing and insulting.

This language does nothing to help repair the damage perpetrated by racism, conscious or unconscious.

Alexandra Merrill, St. George