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Quote by John Howard Griffin

“We were Negroes and our concern was the white man and how to get along with him; how to hold our own and raise ourselves in his esteem without for one moment letting him think he had any God-given rights that we did not also have.”

Quote by John Howard Griffin

Book:Black Like Me
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Black Like Me

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John Howard Griffin
John Howard Griffin

John Howard Griffin was an influential American journalist and writer, best known for his 1961 work 'Black Like Me', which documented his experience of passing as a black man to expose the harsh realities of racial segregation. His work had a profound impact on racial equality and social justice. more

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“Now you take dark Negroes like you, Mr. Griffin, and me," he went on. "We're old Uncle Toms to our people, no matter how much education and morals we've got. No, you have to be almost a mulatto, have your hair conked and all slicked out and look like a Valentino. Then the Negro will look up to you. You've got class. Isn't that a pitiful hero-type?" "And the white man knows that," Mr. Davis said. "Yes," the cafe owner continued. "He utilizes this knowledge to flatter some of us, tell us we're above our people, not like most Negroes. We're so stupid we fall for it and work against own own. Why, if we'd work just half as hard to boost our race as we do to please whites whose attentions flatter us, we'd really get somewhere.”

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Book:Black Like Me
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“Racism watching is a puzzle solving activity and often involves debunking pseudo-science. The investigator must try to figure out what makes people believe in weird ideas. As Stieg said in an interview, ‘Fifty years later, people still believe in this; the whole Neo-Nazi movement. There is absolutely no sense in this. They do it contrary to everything science tells us. Contrary to human goodness or altruism, contrary to rational thinking. And this is fascinating, why?”

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“Sonnet of National Beauty Beauty and ugliness as we know them, Are the product of an ugly mind. Once we step across all pretenses, We learn how much we’ve been blind. The whitest places on planet earth, Happen to be the ugliest of all places. For what appears to be a fancy joint, Is filled with a bunch of suited savages. Nations of color have problems too, But they don't pretend to be advanced. When we claim to be a global leader, We must first practice inclusion on demand. Great is not the nation that appears fancy, But one which values people over diplomacy.”

PoliticsRacismNationalismInclusionDiplomacyWhite SupremacySonnetSystemic RacismNation BuildingNeonazis
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