Three weeks ago, a story we published put us in the middle of a controversy. It was hardly the first time that has happened, but this instance suggested an opportunity for more than usual colloquy in the letters pages. So for this occasion and others like it, we have revived a section of TIME called Forum, which begins on page 28, concerns our cover subject this week—the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Parrakhan. The decision to pursue an in-depth investigation of this subject was prompted by the anti-Semitic and otherwise racist speech that Farrakhan's aide, Khallid Muhammad, gave at Kean College in New Jersey. The story was newsworthy in large part because it came just as some mainstream black groups were attempting to form. a constructive alliance with Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. News of the speech loosed a flash flood of reportage and commentary on the subject, and at that time we began the kind of weeks-long investigation a cover story like this one requires. At the same time, we published an article on one telling aspect of the larger story: the fact that some black leaders were offended when whites called on them to denounce racism in other black leaders while seeming to ignore offensive remarks by whites—as, for example, Senator Ernest Hoolings, who had some time before made a supposedly joking reference to an African delegation as cannibals. The larger issue was that blacks feel they should be presumed to abhor anti-Semitism and other forms of racism without having to say no, and that they resent the attempt by whites to script. their views, behavior. or alliances. The story raised interesting and important points, and it clearly struck a nerve. The reaction was instantaneous and strong, most of it coming from white and Jewish readers. Some argued that our story was opinion masquerading as fact. Some people, both white and black, said that crediting white pressure for the denunciations of Farrakhan was condescending, that it deprived black leaders of credit for what was simply principled behavior. Some readers also felt that to concentrate on this issue was to minimize or downplay the virulence of Muhammad's speech. And there was a general view among our critics that no amount of good works by the Nation of Islam could justify any black leader's toleration of, not to mention alliance with, such a racist organization: The issues raised by the story's critics are important. Still, tiffs much must be said: Muhammad's speech was wholly disreputable and vile, and I believe our story made that clear. Our focus, however, was not on black racism but on the perception of a subtle form. of white racism—the sense among some back leaders that, as the story put it, 'some whites feel a need to make all black leaders speak out whenever one black says something stupid.' That this feeling of grievance exists is net just TIMEs opinion. It is fact. We can infer that the author of the article is ______.