Well obviously the views of immigrants aren't a SUBSTITUTE for the views of residents, but I think it's frankly absurd to assert that outsiders aren't ALLOWED to have opinions about cultures. Do you not have an opinion on female genital mutilation in Africa? Do you not have an opinion about whether the rape of Nanking or the My Lai massacre was OK? We make judgments all the time about things that other cultures do. Obviously we should be very careful when we do so, to make sure we understand the context, but I think it's extremely naive to pretend that we don't or shouldn't make those judgments at all.
Re: Infantile NY Times