Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2010

Both sentences are ambiguous because there is no way of determining
what "they" refers to. Depending on the meanings intended, I would
rewrite the first one as

"The veterinarians served the Labrador retrievers last because the
retrievers were black."

or

"The veterinarians served the Labrador retrievers last because the
veterinarians were black."

and the second one as

"The police officers were disrespectful to our clients because our clients
are Hispanic."

or

"The police officers were disrespectful to our clients because the police
officers are Hispanic."

Rewrites are also possible using a "therefore" construction instead of
a "because" construction, for example

"The police officers are Hispanic and were therefore disrespectful to our
clients."

or

"Our clients are Hispanic and therefore the police officers were
disrespectful to them."

Please allow me to rewrite to clarify the issue I intend.

The veterinarians served the retrievers last because the dogs were
black.
The police officers mistreated our clients because the Gomezes are
Hispanic.

Note the use of *were* near the end of the first sentence but the use
of *are* near the end of the second.

We wouldn't say the man got into the truck because it is red, would
we?  We'd say he got in because it was red, and we'd use *was* even we
knew that the reader knew the truck remained red, right?  Yet when it
comes to the ethnicity of people, I see excellent writers use the
present tense while describing a past event.  And I once observed
someone ridiculing a poster for using the past tense in such a
situation, saying "What, are they no longer xxxx?"

The tenses seem correctly chosen to me in both sentences.  The
difference has to do with point of view.

There were some Labs at the vets' office.  They were black.  They
probably still are black, but we're not talking about them in the
present because we were only concerned with them in the moment.

The Gomezes are your clients now, so you're still concerned with them
now.  They are Hispanic.  The officers may have been disrespectful to a
bunch of other people you don't know about who were also Hispanic.

¬R

As a civil rights attorney and card-carrying member of the ACLU, I
find the speculation on my racism amusing.  Seems to me, however, that
publicly alluding to someone as a likely racist shouldn't be done
lightly, not if you view racism as a serious evil.  One should have a
bit more certainty than is required to say, oh I don't know, "I think
I detect a hint of a Boston accent."

Regardless, does anyone know of an online writing manual or other
authoritative resource that addresses this issue?  I've seen it
discussed before, but I'll be damned if I can remember where.

The rule in question is called "sequence of tenses".  Eminent grammarian
George O. Curme described it as "the stupidest rule in English."  It
holds that: "When the principal proposition has a past indicative, a past-
tense form must usually follow."  The notable exception to that "usually"
is "if it is desired to represent something as habitual, customary,
characteristic, or as universally true."

So:

 "He _wanted_ to do it before his father *arrived*. [ordinary assertion]

But:

 "He _didn't_ seem to know that nettles *sting*."  [universal truth]

Also: "the old sequence is not infrequently disregarded to emphasize the
relation of the act or state in question to the present or the future."  
In such cases, we usually use the present perfect:

 "He _remarked_ that traditionally honesty *has been* the best policy."

And: "the present tense is often used after a past indicative to
represent a state or activity as still continuing":

  I _learned_ this morning that the men *are* still at work on the
  bridge.

That seems to be what is in play in the second sample sentence above.  
But I reckon one could as well write it--

 The police officers were disrespectful to our clients because they were
 Hispanic.

--without actual error.  The essence seems, to me, to lie in the
importance (not the mere actuality) of the state or condition continuing
through the present.