I can’t imagine where Dan Shannon is doing his online research that finds “sidewalks racist” and all of his other dubious examples of anything and everything being racist. Being a lawyer, I’m sure he is expert at not asking any question he doesn’t already know the answer to.

But if anyone is really interested in finding examples of systemic racism, all you need to do is type those four words, “examples of systemic racism” into your search engine and there will be no shortage of “systemic” ways that people of color are discriminated against in this country.

One example presented itself just the other day: the governor elect of Virginia’s underage son tried to vote twice and was turned away with no charges filed. Meanwhile, a black women in Texas — not realizing she was ineligible to vote — got five years in prison.

Get caught with one gram of crack cocaine, which is the predominate form used by black people, and face a sentence 100 times the sentence for one gram of powdered cocaine, the preferred form used by white people.

I could fill up the entire publication of the Courier-Herald with such examples and none of them would be the inane examples that Dan Shannon sites in his guest column.

He states that there are no racist laws discriminating against people of color. While that may well be true, systemic doesn’t necessarily mean laws. Whites have had 250 years to rig the system without the use of laws. One site I visited had 64 practical examples of systemic racism citing references for every one.

As to what he calls himself in his column, it seems like most lawyers think of themselves that way, just sayin’.

Larry Benson

Enumclaw