Houston and Race

I found Jan Breslauer’s article on playwright Velina Hasu Houston (“Hues and Cries,” July 7) a welcome departure from the misguided treatment of interracial relationships portrayed in Spike Lee’s film “Jungle Fever.”

As a white male who has maintained a five-year relationship with a Japanese-American woman, I found Lee’s need to reduce a black-white relationship to racial “curiosity” both offensive and hateful.

By contrast, Houston appears to possess the depth needed to probe individual motivations and the consequences involved when one violates society’s unwritten codes of sexual conduct. I agree wholeheartedly with her that attraction based on “sexual mythology” occurs without regard to race.

Let Lee confront his demons. In this age of racial antagonism and separatism, Houston’s is a hopeful and much-needed voice.

MICHAEL H. BUTLER

Los Angeles