In this perilous world, if a black boy wanted to live a halfway normal life and die a natural death he had to learn early the art of how to get along with white folks.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the necessity for marginalized individuals to navigate social dynamics for survival in a prejudiced world.
Benjamin E. Mays underscores the harsh reality faced by black boys in a society rife with racial tensions. He suggests that in order to achieve a semblance of normalcy and ensure their safety, they must adeptly learn to interact with those in positions of privilege, particularly white individuals. This points to the broader themes of race relations, survival, and the complexities of social coexistence.
In practice
A speaker at a civil rights conference could use this quote to emphasize the importance of understanding different cultural backgrounds.
The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream...It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin.
It isn't more light we need, it isn't more truth, and it isn't more scientific data. It is more Christ, more courage, more spiritual insight to act on the light we have.
A child must learn early to believe that she is somebody worthwhile, and that she can do many praiseworthy things.
Whatever you do,strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead and no man yet to be born could do it any better.
Many well-meaning intelligent people have argued since the May 17, 1954, decision of the United States Supreme Court outlawing segregation in the public schools that communication between the races has broken down.
He who starts behind in the great race of life must forever remain behind or run faster than the man in front.
Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!
Loneliness is never more cruel than when it is felt in close propinquity with someone who has ceased to communicate.
Asking women to respect themselves in order to ‘earn’ the right to be treated like a human being is total horseshit. But suggesting that you have the right to treat her exactly as you please because she didn’t adhere to your archaic views of feminine propriety is misogyny, plain and simple.
My marriage to Marjorie is the most rewarding thing that ever happened to me. She gave me a life and a relationship that I didn't know existed.
All too often we think of community in terms of being with folks like ourselves: the same class, same race, same ethnicity, same social standing and the like..I think we need to be wary: we need to work against the danger of evoking something that we don’t challenge ourselves to actually practice.
Someone knocks at the door of an apartment to borrow salt or sugar, people run into each other in the elevator, and in this way become inscribed in the spectator's memory.
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