In Jack Vickrey's letter to the editor "Columnist should not apologize for views," Sept. 30, he misinterprets Thomas Mei's column.

Vickrey wrongly suggests that when one mentions and acknowledges someone's race, he is being racist. For example, if I say that I met a tall black man and blonde woman, I'm not being prejudiced. Prejudice begins when I assume the black man is a pro basketball player and the blonde woman is clueless. Mei more correctly stated that racism occurs when race is used as a defining characteristic.

Still, this is not the best definition of racial prejudice. Prejudice is the act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions. Prejudice not only involves assumptions about one's characteristics, it requires unreasonable judgments. Society then determines what unreasonable is.