I really don't give a hoot about Silent Sam, but care deeply about the message sent by the table-like sculpture in tribute to the black people who helped build the university (CHN Nov. 22).

If the sculpture had been built early in the university's history, I could better understand it, although I hope it would have been removed by thoughtful people. This is a modern-day piece with two-foot tall balck men and women, their faces racial caricatures. I find the sculpture offensive as it still has blacks holding up a white society. I think most people today are working past that concept.

I know that when my two young black grandsons visit, I do not take them to see the table sculpture. It would be too embarrassing for me and too humiliating for them. They see themselves as full members of a multicultural country.

Sally Walters

Chapel Hill