I asked myself why, as a member of the class of 1982, Royston Taylor '82 hasn't at his advanced age come to understand that in this world there are good people and bad people, people who will judge you by the way you look and people who will reserve judgment until you've opened your mouth ("Ask Yourself," Alumni P.O.V., March /April). What's important, though, is to understand that you can't change all the bad ones. Gandhi couldn't, Mandela couldn't, King couldn't.

In my nearly twenty years as a white man in Asia I am sure I have been passed by as many empty taxicabs as Taylor. And my Japanese future father-in-law, when he threatened to boycott my wedding to his daughter, was pretty sure that "white don't wash off" either. My father-in-law came around, of course, and those taxi drivers? Well, other taxis came along (or I walked).

Hate don't wash off, but that only matters if you get some on you.

Roberto De Vido '85
Yokosuka, Japan
robertodevido@gmail.com