Let's think about that.

Some people see racists behind every tree. Patricia Turner is a professor of African-American studies at the University of California Davis. She wrote an essay about the movie, The Help.

If you've not seen it, I highly recommend it. It has a message told with both pathos and humor. The acting is Oscar quality. And if you grew up in the 1960's, you'll enjoy the cars, the fashions, and the home decor.

But Patricia thinks The Help is dangerous. The message she took away from the movie was that the white women portrayed in it were bad; therefore they were racists. The problem with that, she says, is "To suggest that bad people were racists implies that good people were not."

Patricia may know a thing or two about "African-American studies," but she's terribly short on logic and accurate perception. There were at least a half dozen (maybe more) women with any character development at all in The Help. Only one or two of those were truly "bad" women -- Hilly and the state DAR lady. The others were products of their environment -- some were strong, some were not. The weaker ones succumbed to peer pressure. But it was obvious that each experienced guilt and remorse for the things she said and did. A "bad" person has no guilt or remorse.

Now to her giant leap into illogical logic . . . people will assume that if bad people are racists, good people are not. That's as absurd as saying "White people are good so black people are not." Obviously, there are good white people and bad white people just as there are good black people and bad black people. There are bad people who are racists and bad people who are not. There are good people who are not racists and good people who are. And most importantly, just in case she doesn't know it, there are just as many black people who are racists as there are white people -- maybe even more.

"'Good people' were racists, too." The Dallas Morning News; August 31, 2011; p. 15A.