Name: Anonymous 2008-03-25 16:40
An article from 1998
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E3DF1430F93BA35750C0A96E958260
Michele L. Egerton, 31, a black station cleaner for the Transit Authority in New York, has sent messages to the America Online race site. ''We need a dialogue,'' she said. ''We're going into the 21st century and we still have this black and white issue. It hurts and it's senseless.''
Miss Egerton said she found herself drawn into speaking out on the race site when she happened upon a message from a 19-year-old woman named Lauren, who said she thought that affirmative action was unfair to whites like herself.
Drawing on the Bible and experiences in her life, Miss Egerton offered what she called ''help with your stance on racism.'' At the end of her message to Lauren, she wrote: ''You are very privileged to be the color you are; I guess you don't know it because you're not confronted with opposition every day. Just think about it, O.K.?''
McLean Greaves, the chief executive of Virtual Melanin Inc., an Internet company based in Brooklyn, said he was often astounded at the candor many people used in addressing racial issues on the Internet, even on his site Cafe Los Negroes (www.losnegroes.com), which bills itself as ''New York's black and Latino virtual hangout.''
''To me, this is what the Internet is all about,'' said Mr. Greaves, who is black. ''Race is the hottest topic in America. This country is obsessed with it. The Internet is the perfect forum for it.''
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E3DF1430F93BA35750C0A96E958260
Michele L. Egerton, 31, a black station cleaner for the Transit Authority in New York, has sent messages to the America Online race site. ''We need a dialogue,'' she said. ''We're going into the 21st century and we still have this black and white issue. It hurts and it's senseless.''
Miss Egerton said she found herself drawn into speaking out on the race site when she happened upon a message from a 19-year-old woman named Lauren, who said she thought that affirmative action was unfair to whites like herself.
Drawing on the Bible and experiences in her life, Miss Egerton offered what she called ''help with your stance on racism.'' At the end of her message to Lauren, she wrote: ''You are very privileged to be the color you are; I guess you don't know it because you're not confronted with opposition every day. Just think about it, O.K.?''
McLean Greaves, the chief executive of Virtual Melanin Inc., an Internet company based in Brooklyn, said he was often astounded at the candor many people used in addressing racial issues on the Internet, even on his site Cafe Los Negroes (www.losnegroes.com), which bills itself as ''New York's black and Latino virtual hangout.''
''To me, this is what the Internet is all about,'' said Mr. Greaves, who is black. ''Race is the hottest topic in America. This country is obsessed with it. The Internet is the perfect forum for it.''