Fifty Years of Freedom: with matters of vital importance to both the white and colored people of the United StatesGrimké, Francis J. (Francis James)
History
Fifty Years of Freedom: with matters of vital importance to both the white and colored people of the United States
Grimké, Francis J. (Francis James)
African Americans
(8). Nor should we allow ourselves to become embittered by the mean and
persistent opposition of our enemies; by the studied efforts that they
are ever making to insult and humiliate us. Unless we are watchful,
unless we are tolerably sane, it is so easy to allow such things to
rankle in our breasts, to engender feelings of bitterness and hatred.
Natural as it is, however, we must resist it. It is bad business for an
individual or a race to allow itself to become embittered against
another individual or race. Such a spirit will destroy our own
happiness, our own peace of mind, and will not help to win over our
enemies. Out of a spirit of mutual hatred no good can possibly come to
either race. The result is bound to be evil; and the evil will grow as
the hatred grows.
If we are to fight successfully, fight in the most effective way, we
must be calm, we must not be spurred on by bitterness, by hatred, but by
the consciousness that what we are contending for is right, and,
therefore, is best for all, even for those against whom we are
contending, who are foolishly trying to obstruct our way. Let us possess
our souls in patience; let us be calm, self-possessed. These enemies who
are fighting us deserve our pity. The course which they are pursuing, in
the long run, will prove more injurious to them than to us. The more
they fight us, the more they resist us, the more they seek to insult and
humiliate us, the more are they injuring themselves, the more are they
sinking to lower levels, the less are they becoming worthy of the
respect of decent, right-thinking people. We may suffer in our feelings;
we may be deprived of our rights for a time; but they are suffering in a
way that is eating away the only thing of real value—the only thing that
is worth having—character. We may suffer, but the penalty which we pay
is not near so dear, so costly as the penalty which they are paying.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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