To the members of the editorial board responsible for the Oct. 29 Forum opinion:

Thank you for your attempt at starting a frank discussion about race at Northwestern. It saddens me today that this is the same discussion that we were having in the ’80s at NU. It also saddens me that as it was then, there exists now the same level of ignorance among The Daily Northwestern’s editorial board.

Perhaps I expect too much from a university student newspaper. Northwestern is one of the world’s best academic institutions. It enrolls some of the brightest minds in the world. Would it have been too difficult to have some conversations with alumni from a variety of decades to get a bit of perspective on this divisive issue? How about inviting some of our brilliant faculty to clarify/define the terms that the editorial board finds too difficult to understand? I think newspapers are dying in America partly from the intellectual laziness the board displayed in its Forum response.

Northwestern has come very far over the decades regarding issues of race. The University has worked and continues to work diligently to provide an atmosphere for learning where all feel welcome. It would be intelligent if when writing about such important issues, the board would build upon an honest framework about where we have been, what we are doing and the vision of where we are heading, before spouting such unhelpful rhetoric as it did in its Forum comments.

Given the tremendous human and academic resources at your disposal – you can, and you must, do better, Daily Northwestern.

Best wishes,

Kevin L. Brown, WCAS ‘85

Youth and Young Adult Program Manager

Evanston Parks, Recreation and Community Services Dept.