Don't make charity a race issue

July 16, 2009

Dear Sir,

This letter is in response to Peter Forster's letter printed on July 16, 2009.

In his letter Mr. Forster states:

"There seems to be a lot of conjecture regarding the reasons why most of the protesters are white. Here is my take, whites are the only ones who actually care enough to take positive action. Before the howls of protest reach fever pitch, a few examples. Back in the 1980s Bob Geldof set up a worldwide fund to raise money for starving blacks in Africa. There was a charity run in Bermuda to raise funds for this cause, 95 percent of the runners were white, I know because I was one of them.

"A few years later my wife was looking for donations of Bibles to assist a missionary in Africa, 70 percent of the donations, of which there were a significant number, came from whites. Whites had nothing to gain from these events yet they made the effort."

I applaud Mr. and Mrs. Forster for their charity, but it is less than charitable to suggest that because black people were either not represented or were under-represented in these events that blacks are not proactive regarding charity.

I offer only one example, not because there aren't others, but because it ties in with one of Mr. Forster's examples. There is a woman, very well known in the "black" community of Bermuda who has actually started a school in Africa. She has raised funds in the "black" community to sustain that school. Maybe that same school received some of the bibles that your wife gathered. She also has nothing to gain by doing this.

It is childish to make charity a race issue. Please stop.

P. SARAH TAYLOR

Smith's Parish