THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508020006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 30 lines
Regarding staff writer Charlise Lyles' ``Hormones don't kill people. . . . (MetroNews, July 22): Ms. Lyles may have been writing what she considered a witty and newsworthy article, but in so doing she cast a stereotype of African-American women that offended me. I refer to her description of ``sister-girlfriend'' with her ``hand on her hip. . . ,'' ``fingering her braids,'' a sassy attitude that many people think epitomizes black women. We have far more depth than the jargon a few friends of hers were using in a grocery store.
Ms. Lyles suggests that having a hair-trigger temper that would escalate with PMS and the fact that the law now allows almost everyone to carry a concealed weapon makes us potentially mass murderers.
But PMS is not limited to women of color, and neither is violence.
We don't need negative sensationalism in the newspapers, but balance in bringing human-interest stories.
FAYE FOREMAN
Virginia Beach, July 25, 1995 by CNB