Douglas J. Miller, in his letter to the editor on Friday, believes that we should abolish every kind of law and special favors that privilege minorities. Well, Mr. Miller, believe it or not, none of these laws and special favors have worked thus far for Hispanics and Latinos in this country. Furthermore, before any of these laws and favors, lynchings, forced separation of whites from "undesirable" minorities, and discrimination were all legal, or by de facto "legal," impacting Hispanics in a major way and not just African-Americans.

Just yesterday, the Justice Department announced that it was investigating anthrax hoax letters with ethnic slurs to six Hispanic organizations. It was briefly mentioned in some news outlets, but overall, the story was minimized surprisingly in this new era of heightened alert and awareness. Did you also know that the Justice Department had to send federal observers to more than a dozen states during the last presidential election because of continuing threats to Hispanics by whites to try to prevent them from voting? The most egregious case was that of Passaic County in New Jersey.

Hispanics in all realms of American society, not just the media, are always excluded. When it comes to issues on race, America is always talking about white and black and forgetting about the rest of us who are just as affected by discrimination. Moreover, according to the latest Census Bureau, we soon will be come the largest minority, but we have the lowest rates of education and lowest levels of poverty and one of the highest rates of health problems.

Mr. Miller, if you think these so called laws and favors have done anything for us, think again.