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Referring to Capitol Hill staffers as “all hustlers” and then likening them to a con artist such as Stephanie is preposterous and a sophomoric grope for an edge to your story (“Deconstructing Stephanie,” 4/30). Hill staffers are not breaking any laws, and they are aware of the manipulative albeit consensual milieu in which they work. You are suggesting that Stephanie’s deceptions are legitimate ways of redressing the wrongs done to black people by white people. You are actually insulting them by implying that this is a righteous form of graft and thereby excusable—that this is the best they can do.

Potomac, Md.

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