Leonard Pitts punches back at dirty dogs

It is 5 a.m. and I can't sleep because of the rage I felt at the letter written mostly consisting of name calling diatribes against columnist Leonard Pitts and President Obama for purportedly playing the racism card ("No racism here, Mr. Pitts," Aug. 11). Rest assured, Mr. Pitts and Mr. Obama might have a better vantage point of what racism looks like, smells like and acts like than right wingers writing from the safety of exurbia and white privilege.

I still receive racist e-mails from that milieu purporting that Mr. Obama is the Antichrist, a closet Muslim, a socialist, a proponent of one world government, decorating the White House with esoteric Middle Eastern symbolism and failing to salute the American flag and all sorts of equally ridiculous reality challenged nonsense. A recent letter to an editor in Pennsylvania believes Obama is engaged in collective farming like Josef Stalin. I get these from purported friends in purported sobriety despite the fact that I live in a multiracial family.

I get a lot of criticism of Mr. Obama from my friends on the left who are extremely disenchanted with the 44th president at present. But none of these contain the undoubtedly racist element that the right incessantly indulges in. Pitts is a good writer who can punch back against these dirty dogs. Keep up the good work, Leonard.

My understanding is that both Mr. Pitts and Mr. Obama have received serious death threats from those who traffic in racial fear and hatred.

Paul R. Schlitz Jr., Baltimore