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Once again, Blair Lee's got it all wrong in ["Race talk?" Oct. 16]. Instead of taking his own advice and not resorting to stereotypical ignorance, he mentions the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton in his recent column about race relations. Can we have a conversation about black people that doesn't include them? I don't recall saying Sharpton or Jackson could speak for me. The media are the ones that put them up as the black voice ... not the black community.

Who do you call when a black man gets shot in Germantown? Call Rev. Al. He'll give us a good sound byte, say the media outlets. But doesn't Craig Rice, who is black, live and represent that area? Yes, but he's not the spokesperson for the black community ... Rev. Al is! No wait ... let's contact the NAACP, they're local.

But I digress ... yes, race relations. Mr. Lee contends that we don't want to talk about it. I do! I think things are going well. We've made great strides and although there are those that still haven't come along and accepted ethnic minorities as equals, a heck of a lot of people have. In District 15, which has a 9 percent black population, I won my race for elected office. A whole lot of white people voted for me. In fact, they voted for County Executive Ike Leggett also.

And [U.S. Attorney General] Eric Holder is right. Those who remain silent and don't speak up are cowards. Why do the "...whites silently watch the clock on the wall?" Why not dialogue? Get things out in the open, clear misconceptions or misunderstandings. You assert it's fear of reprisals. Boy where's Rosa Parks when you need her? Can't make progress without a little pain.

I'll give you the NAACP example. I'm a bit disappointed in that comment and hoped for more from them. If that same rationale were used in my election, I wouldn't be allowed to run. Doesn't make much sense to me.

But c'mon....quoting Marion Barry to support the city parks director dismissal?

Blair, I think you're trying to take the easy way out ... just like the white people staring at the wall in your example. There are those out here ready to dialogue about race relations. Those who heard the stories of their parents being called the N-word and kids throwing bottles of urine at them as they walked to school, but understand that was a different time. People can and have changed.

And the truth is the truth. If we (blacks) have higher crime commission rates, higher teenage pregnancy rates, higher dropout rates, higher incarceration rates than whites, then it is what it is. But the dialogue needs to be how can we fix it, instead of I can't believe he said that. Like Bill Cosby said, "Black folks have to do a better job."

Just like those racists have changed, the black community has changed too. It's time for new spokespeople for the black community to emerge. Eric Holder is one of them. I want to be one of them too. Are you and the media willing to listen to me? I'm calling and I'm serious.

Craig Rice, of Germantown, is a Democratic state delegate representing western Montgomery County.