Dear Editor: Once upon a time, when the elementary school at Our Lady of Victory Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant was still running, there was a group of exemplary nuns who, alongside teaching the basics of fundamental education, made a point of helping black students understand their identity and culture by disseminating the teachings of black public figures, including Malcolm X.

The idea of a black student at Christ the King H.S. being singled out by a non-black administration because the student’s name and initials just so happen to spell out the name of this influential figure in black American history is a primary example of why the collective understanding of anti-black discrimination by white Catholics is so depressingly backwards.

Whatever plans His Excellency, the Bishop, has in mind for this recently formed Commission to combat racism, I think this absurd incident proves that it is safe to say its directive couldn’t come at a more crucial time.

JOSEPH P. MURRAY

Breezy Point