James Byrd Jr, Jasper Texas, Houston Chronicle and Racism

On the ten year anniversary of the three Racists in Jasper, Texas dragging James Byrd Jr behind their truck until his head snapped off, the Houston Chronicle featured the story and the family's work on getting some long overdue Hate Crimes Legislation passed in Texas. When the family went to then Governor George W. Bush for help he helped them to the door. These are the only two responses to that Chronicle Article

Seeing 'yellow' over Jasper

As a native of Jasper and longtime resident of Houston, I was outraged at the Chronicle's front-page coverage of the events of June 7, 1998. (Please see "JASPER: 10 YEARS LATER / On June 7, 1998, James Byrd Jr.'s murder brought global attention to a small town, where today some strive to preserve the memory, and others wish the world could forget," Page One, Saturday.) The good people of Jasper have attempted to return their town to normalcy, only to be confronted with the media's relentless coverage of an event long since forgotten.
Two perpetrators are on death row and a third is in prison for life for the death of an African-American drug dealer. The days of William Randolph Hearst's "yellow journalism" are long past, but the Chronicle, as a Hearst publication, appears determined to bring these practices back to the 21st century.

H.C. ALFORD, Houston

What curiosity revealed

After reading the article on James Byrd Jr., I got curious about murderers and their victims, so I did a little research on the Bureau of Justice Statistics' Web site. Typically, just under 20 percent of all murders in the United States are black on white � compared with less than 5 percent for white on black murders.
I look forward to seeing a front-page article delving into this subject.

PERRY WHITLEY, Houston

After a few months of hearing that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro are racists and that constant beat from the Neocons that Jimmy Carter is an Anti-Semite, these two letters to the editor (on top of each other) in the paper the other day got me angry.

These guys are racists. I know it, you know it, anyone who read them knows it, the Houston Chronicle knows and both these good ole boys know it too. There is no doubt at all about what they are. NONE, ZERO, ZIP, NAUGHT, NADA...

Even without the bogus "drug dealer" comment the murderous oppression Blacks serve upon white people, it is what it is. To go out of their way and to even put their names to their racist swill just to express their anger of being reminded of what racists they and theirs indeed are. But you can't say that. On TV or the radio or in a newpaper... But you can say Liberals who have spend a good share of their lives fighting for civil rights and equal justice are racists.

Its the media stupid.