If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Interpretation
Neutrality in the face of injustice favors the oppressor over the victim.
Desmond Tutu's quote emphasizes that in circumstances of injustice, remaining neutral is tantamount to supporting the oppressor. By using the imagery of an elephant and a mouse, it highlights how indifference to wrongdoing can exacerbate the suffering of the vulnerable, illustrating the moral imperative to take a stand against injustice.
In practice
During a speech advocating for human rights, one can use this quote to emphasize the importance of taking a stance.
The fossil reserves that have already been discovered exceed what can ever be safely used. Yet companies spend half a trillion dollars each year searching for more fuel. They should redirect this money toward developing clean energy solutions
As much as the world has an instinct for evil and is a breeding ground for genocide, holocaust, slavery, racism, war, oppression, and injustice, the world has an even greateer instinct for goodness, rebirth, mercy, beauty, truth, freedom and love.
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.
Religion is like a knife: you can either use it to cut bread, or stick in someone's back.
Gaza is going to test who believes in the worth of human beings.
It is hope which makes the shipwrecked sailor strike out with his arms in the midst of the sea, though no land is in sight.
I´m not a wandering slave, I am a woman of choice
Courage. Kindness. Friendship. Character. These are the qualities that define us as human beings, and propel us, on occasion, to greatness.
And I ask him why he cuts his arms with a razor. "Just fo feel. Just to feel something.
We have come a long way in America because of Martin Luther King, Jr. He led a disciplined, nonviolent revolution under the rule of law, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas. We've come a long way, but we still have a distance to go before all of our citizens embrace the idea of a truly interracial democracy, what I like to call the Beloved Community, a nation at peace with itself.
In honour I gained them, and in honour I will die with them.
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