Columbia, SC — Racism is not dead, nor will it ever be. As long as there are people, there will be some who hate others for no good reason. Some whites will hate blacks, and some blacks will hate whites.

But we Americans should be proud that racism is dying a slow and steady death. For decades, some of the most popular and highly paid people in our land have been African-American (Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey, for example). We have twice elected a bi-racial man to the highest office in the land.

Now South Carolina, often known for the Confederate flag, will have a black senator, Tim Scott. We have come a long way toward being a nation that can “judge a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.”

Joe Thomas

Columbia