MEDIA BRAND TULIA UNFAIRLY AS RACIST, BIGOTED TULIA - I have become increasingly concerned over the recent bad publicity about Tulia in the local and national press and would like to pose some questions and offer suggestions that might put the controversy in perspective. Articles in several national and local newspapers have branded Tulia as a bigoted, racist community that was responsible for the conviction and sentencing on drug charges of a sizable portion of the small Tulia black community. These allegations came to the attention of the national press and the American Civil Liberties Union largely because of the opinions expressed by a small group of individuals in Tulia. I feel strongly that these individuals, though sincerely concerned about racial discrimination and miscarriage of justice, have come to incorrect conclusions and are guilty of simplistic reasoning. These individuals have leveled very serious charges against the Tulia community. They make it seem that Tulia is an island of racism in an ocean of complete tolerance, and this is certainly not true. Gradations of racism are found all over America, including Texas, New York and California, the places of origin of some of the most vitriolic articles condemning Tulia. That is not to say that some Tulia people are not prejudiced to some degree. There are shades of racial intolerance here, the same as in Amarillo, where I was born and raised, with more prejudice present in the older people, very little in the young and shades of prejudice in those in the intervening ages. I firmly believe that shades of racism alone could not and would not motivate Tulia citizens to convict this group of young men, most of whom are black, and those who suggest this are, in my opinion, intellectually challenged and seeking a simple solution to a complex problem. Those who have indicted our community say the defendants were convicted and received harsh sentences merely because they were black, ignoring the fact that several confessed to their crime and the longest sentence was given to a white man. They also ignore the physical evidence in the case and the fact that the identity of these drug dealers was well known to many Tulia students. For obvious reasons, those who bought the drugs kept quiet. Those who refused to buy drugs were reluctant to implicate the dealers because they, the students, felt threatened by them. Other aspects of this case trouble me. A $2 million lawsuit has been filed against each county official involved in the case. I feel relatively certain that those who filed the lawsuits know that Swisher County has malpractice insurance that covers the people being sued. Were the suits filed in an attempt to right a social injustice, or were these spurious claims made by a plaintiff going for the "deep pockets"? To put it bluntly, was this a noble cause or a fund-raising event? I feel qualified to make this assessment of the current controversy for two reasons. First, I am not a native of Tulia and have a more unbiased perspective than many who have lived here all their lives. Second, I have been involved in preserving the health-care delivery system in Tulia and know that this is a community deeply concerned about all its citizens, regardless of race. Finally, if the allegations by the ACLU and others were true, I never would have remained in this town for 15 years, or planned to live here indefinitely.
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