the Negro: this is not just a matter of rationalizing and verbalizing. It has become a strong emotional need of the white man. Blaming the Negro...gives the white a stronger sense of identity, or rather it protects an identity which is seriously threatened with pathological dissolution. It is by blaming the Negro that the white man tries to hold himself together...The Negro could really wreak havoc in white society by psychological warfare if he knew how to use it. Already the psychological weapon of nonviolence has proved effective as an attack on the white man's trumped-up image of himself as a righteous and Christian being."- Thomas Merton, 1948
says it all, doesn't it?
Read what else Tom has to say...
How I wish that quotation was incorrect, but from what I see it truly isn't. It is, however, interesting.
ReplyDeleteand we see this more and more as blacks are joined by brown and yellow...too many whites are still longing for the 20th century and its safety.
ReplyDelete