I am often embarrassed, even ashamed, to be white. The latest reinforcement of this feeling comes from the behavior of white residents in Utah’s San Juan County.
For longer than anyone can remember, they have sought to repress the political voice of their Navajo majority.
Thankfully, a federal judge finally put an end to the gerrymandering that had always given two of the three county commission seats to white residents.
But now the exclamation point. In attempting to maintain their privileged position, the county has amassed more than $6 million in legal obligations and is asking Utah taxpayers to pay half of it.
I was raised in Utah’s predominant church and taught to believe that a black skin was the curse of Cain. This is, of course, biblical nonsense, but seeing what we white guys have done to darker-skinned people all over the world, I’m tempted to believe that the curse, if there ever was one, was a white skin.
M.J. Ogden, North Ogden