November 19, 2017: Del Rio News-Herald * Letter to the Editor * CNN has gone bananas







Letter to the Editor,

CNN has gone bananas


Mr. Rojo Manzana and Mr. Amarillo Plátano are sitting next to each other inside a fruit bowl on top of the kitchen table. They just viewed the CNN ad: “This is an apple. Some people might try and tell you that it’s a banana. They might scream banana, banana, banana over and over and over again. They might put BANANA in all caps. You might even start to believe that this is a banana. But it’s not. This is an apple.”


“Now CNN is being ‘fruit-ist’!” exclaims Mr. Manzana.


“That is the height of ‘fruit-ism’! I thought CNN; the first Cable News Network in the world was more tolerant. But they are showing their ‘true colors’. Or would that be ‘color-ist’ of me to say? I want to respect ‘all colors’, especially ‘people of color’,” Mr. Plátano states emphatically with righteous anger and indignation.


“I like all colors!” proudly proclaims Mr. Manzana, “but isn’t white a color also?”

 “I think so, but let me ask my virtual assistant,” Mr. Plátano quickly whips out his Smartphone, “Cissy, is white a color?”

Cissy replies, “In physics, a color is visible light with a specific wavelength. Black and white are not colors because they do not have specific wavelengths. Instead, white light contains all wavelengths of visible light. Black, on the other hand, is the absence of visible light.”


“Now I’m more confused,” confesses Mr. Manzana, “anyway I don’t think CNN should be saying that I can’t be a banana if I want to be a banana. All I have to do is squish myself into an elongated form and paint myself yellow, and voilà I am now a banana.”


“You’re right my friend,” encouragingly confirms Mr. Plátano, “and I can become an apple if I want to be an apple. All I have to do is roll myself into a ball and paint myself red, and voilà I’m an apple. As simple as that.”


“Why do you think CNN is being so dogmatic and undiplomatic?” inquires Mr. Manzana.


Marian Casillas, Ed.D. - Del Rio