...Our townspeople wanted to "keep things peaceful" at all costs. They said I had "stirred things up." This is laudable and tragic. I, too, say let us be peaceful; but the only way to do this is first to assure justice. By keeping "peaceful" in this instance, we end up consenting to the destruction of all peace - for so long as we condone injustice by a small but powerful group, we condone the destruction of all social stability, all real peace, all trust in man's good intentions toward his fellow man.
John Howard Griffin, 1920-1980.
Quoted from Black Like Me, The Definitive Griffin Estate Edition, Wings Press. pp 170 - 171.
Just to contextualise the above quotation. In 1959, Griffin underwent a transformation with the help of medicine and sun-tanning to turn himself from an American white to an African American. After his journey into the South (New Orleans, Atlanta, etc) he recorded his experiences as well as his emotions as an African American, exposing the impact of segregation which a white man had never before experienced, not only bringing down the lies that people had surrounded themselves with (on the treatment of the blacks) but showing how African American communities, individuals and their families coped with the racist attitudes and living conditions subjected on them.
The book, which I'm still reading, is truly one of the most incredible books that has left a deep impression on me. Being a Singaporean, sitting comfortably and typing on my laptop in the 21st century, racism of this level has never occurred to me. What ever brief instances of racism I experienced or saw in my travels or even in Singapore, cannot be compared to what the people went through in 1959 America. This is truly one of the best lessons a man can leave behind for generations to guard and keep in their hearts.
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