Letters: Lockdowns’ role | Reshaping charges | Reparations deserved | Reject dividers | Racist tropes

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Lockdowns drovebusiness closings

Re: “Empty storefronts go far beyond downtowns” (Page A1, April 1).

In your recent article about empty storefronts in the Bay Area, you failed to mention that the Bay Area had some of the hardest lockdowns in the nation. The Bay Area was also at the top in the country for business closures during these COVID lockdowns. This is not a coincidence.

The Bay Area health officials that implemented some of the most severe lockdowns in the nation are partially responsible for these business failures and no one seems willing to acknowledge this.

Scott ManleySunnyvale

Bill could reshapecharges of rape

Re: “Bill aims to bolster hate-crime charges” (Page B1, April 2).

Assemblymember Evan Low introduced a bill to make it clear that one of the forms of bias that turns a crime into a hate crime is when the perpetrator perceives the victim to be “weak, worthless or fair game because of a protected characteristic, including, not limited to, disability or gender,” the two most under-reported hate crimes.

The public defenders association says this will allow a prosecutor to try to prove that this was one of the motives for a rape.

Pardon my sarcasm, but what a terrible thing it would be if a jury got to decide whether Harvey Weinstein was guilty of hate crimes.

Thank you, Evan Low, for this common-sense bill.

Greg deGiereSacramento

Victims of racismdeserve reparations

Re: “Readjustment is more sensible than reparation” (Page A6, April 4).

I disagree with the gentleman who asserted this position. If you, sir, are an African American, who grew up in San Francisco in the 1960s and 70s and experienced firsthand the long-term effects of urban renewal — moving blacks to the Western Addition — all while the very properties that make San Francisco the envy of the world today were nabbed by the powers that be in a modern gold rush of sorts, you would likely feel less inclined to express with such hubris how those impacted generations later should now take anything less than the reparations they deserve.

This is the only way to begin to address the ongoing harm it has caused them, not to mention their countless descendants who have never been made whole. The arrogance of those who were the beneficiaries of such tactics and policies don’t now get to decide what’s fair.

Sharon DixonSan Leandro

Reject those whoseek to divide nation

In “Trump defying political physics may finally be over” (Page A7, March 30), the writer, a newspaper columnist, provides his audience with the usual negative interpretation of Donald Trump. Not one single kind word. Any attempt by me to argue for any significant change of mindset would be futile, so I’ll address an important related issue. Specifically, it has become the real job of politicians and the media to cause division and polarization, making constructive debate very difficult.

For example, the media and politicians reacted to the Tallahassee shooting with extensive talk about trans rights and gun control, saying virtually nothing about how the public might secure schools for its children. We have allowed ourselves to become so divided and polarized that we cannot even talk about something that we all agree about.

Until we’re prepared to reject those who only want to divide, I suspect our society is in deep trouble.

Daniel MautheLivermore

Letter defends racismwith a racist trope

Re: “Comic falls well short of racism” (Page A6, April 4).

In leaping to the defense of the “Mallard Fillmore” March 20 comic, Douglas Abbott’s letter starts with the technically correct observation that a group can be both diverse and not competent.

He then wastes the rest of his limited space arguing against a straw man point that diversity always brings competence, which no one claimed. But it has been shown that diversity of all kinds (not just racial) improves group decision-making.

Moreover, the original comic and Abbott’s defense of it are invoking a racist trope, without any sound basis, that diversity efforts reduce competence. The fact is that there are countless competent people of color who just need a chance to sit at the table.

Greg LindenOakland