To the editor:

Wordsmith and political speech writer Pat Buchanan referred to President Obama as “your boy” to the Rev. Al Sharpton. Buchanan denied racial insensitivity. I don’t. A congressman from Colorado called Obama’s health plan a “tar baby” that one should not get stuck with. Everywhere I researched tar baby, it suggests racial overtones and is demeaning. A media review of tar baby finds it being used primarily by leaders from the Right since Obama has been elected. An elected leader in Kansas refers to undocumented workers as being like an invasive animal that should be exterminated, but denies any racial overtones in his comments.

These recent samples from recognized leaders at national and state levels suggest an evolving attitude that should be attacked for its tasteless and damaging tone. Instead it seems to be gaining credible acceptance. In the recently released movie “The Help,” we are reminded of a time barely 50 years ago where African-American women worked in homes of whites, cooked their food, raised their children, but were considered a health hazard and denied use of their employers’ bathrooms. One domestic was even willed to another family member upon her death, a century after the abolition of slavery.

Fast forward to today and we have separate but unequal schools, income disparity at frightening lows for minorities compared with whites and this country seemingly engaged in a perpetual war against an enemy of color and a religion we fear. A proper sequel to “The Help” might be “We Need Help.”