I don't defend or endorse Michael Hering's very unfortunate remark.
However, I find Peter Vreeland's response, "We don't tolerate your kind
of thinking to exist..." equally chilling. If there's one thing scarier
than racism, it's thought police. Oh, it was meant to be humorous? I
suppose there's no chance Hering's flippant remark was meant as a joke,
however distasteful or ill-considered? Nahh, some people can determine
who is an "angry" (he didn't appear angry to me, but Jackie certainly
did) "little racist" on the basis of 3 lines of e-mail. I'd ask Mr.
Hering to apologize to the list members for an inappropriate, offensive
remark, but I think it's going too far to brand him a racist. Many
non-racists have made racially offensive and insensitive remarks through
miscalculation, accident, Freudian slip, etc. Let's try to be tolerant.
     But if there's one thing I won't tolerate, Mr. Vreeland, it's the
failure to use "you're" and "your" correctly... Lighten up, folks. A
temporary fit of jerkiness doesn't equal racism.

David Haberstich