Mark Small

I was unaware there was a soiree. I telephoned the moderator yesterday morning. Another person called me as the first of two sets of candidates took to the air, said he would call the show’s sponsors, and help get me onto the program. 2/19

I have checked my e-mails and found no such invitation. I caught part of the program: a rant by Carl Brizzi, former Marion County prosecutor, about the Chinese - how they are the source of COVID-19 and are to blame for the pandemic. 3/19

Although there was sufficient time to have me on the program, and even though the person who coordinated invitations to candidates said he would call me, he did not. Brizzi was able to rattle on about the evils of the Chinese. 4/19

“Racism” “1. The belief that some races are inherently superior to other races. 2. Unfair treatment of people, often including violence against them, because they belong to a different race from one’s own.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 10th ed., 2014, p. 1448. 5/19

America’s history is many-hued and has been coated with broad strokes of racism. To ignore shortcomings in our history dooms us to repeat them. Brizzi’s is an old playbook. Others have targeted people of supposed inferior races to benefit at the polls. 6/19

They were “criminals” whose persecution was viewed, by a future President, as “a good thing.” They were depicted as actively corrupting elected officials here. Disgusting racist nicknames were ascribed to them. 7/19

I write not of people from China - although our racism unforgivably targeted them - but Italians. Brizzi’s surname is Italian. A few years ago it was said he would be Indiana campaign manager for Rudy Guiliani - another Italian-American. 8/19

Our history has taught us: racism has no place - none, zero, zip - in politics. Yet here is a person who has derived a paycheck from elected office - i.e., not a political “outsider” - from two terms as Marion County Prosecutor - who now blames the Chinese for COVID. 9/19