IX. Points for discussion.

1. Can violence do anything to diminish race prejudice?

2. What tedious documentation of violence does the author have in mind?

3. Why do reasonable men find it harder and harder to get a hearing?

4. Does the author believe it?s possible to fulfill the ideas of a stable social programme? What precisely should be done in this respect?

5. Can one find constructive solutions to the problem of race prejudice?

6. What do you make of the rounding sentence of the article?

7. Will people ever do away with race discrimination and animosity?

X. Role play.

The argument: key words

1. In countries where racial prejudice is acute, violence is taken for granted.

2. E.g. white man rules by brute force; black man protests: fire and pillaging.

3. Important people on both sides see violence as a legitimate solution.

4. It's frightening to realise that man has made no progress: collars and ties instead of war-paint, but unchanged.

5. Recorded history has taught us nothing.

6. Violence only makes problem more acute: horror, bloodshed are not solutions.

7. Truly reasonable men don't get a hearing.

8. They advocate law enforcement and are mistrusted and persecuted.

9. Energy should be directed at clearing up slums, ghettos, improving living-standards, providing education, employment.

10. Strength sapped by violence.

11. Well-directed efforts: great benefits.

12. We must always work within the framework of the law.

13. First step: we must appreciate each other?s problems.

14. An exercise in communication, exchanging information.

15. ?Talk, talk, talk, and we are none the wiser? ? say advocates of violence.

16. Story of barrister and judge.

17. None the wiser. Possibly?but far better informed.

18. Knowledge, the prerequisite of wisdom: the knowledge that violence creates the evils it pretends to solve.

The counter-argument: key words

1. What are the lessons about democracy which the black man has learnt from the white man? What has he learnt about liberty, equality and fraternity?

2. He has learnt that universal suffrage is a myth; that there are many forms of justice; that his presence devalues property.

3. Above all, he has learnt that the status quo is preserved by violence.

4. When dealing with each other, white men depend on force.

5. E.g. Peaceful co-existence between east and west is maintained by the constant threat of war.

6. Weakness on one side means domination by the other.

7. Weak opponents are repressed by force and kept in subjection by violence.

8. The black man has learned the rules of the game and applies them.

9. The Christian ideal of turning the other cheek is something the white man preaches but fails to practise.

10. The white man sets all the examples.

11. The only way to get a hearing is through violence.

12. Violence improves your status, encourages others to respect you as a force to be reckoned with.

13. Only then can the parties negotiate on equal terms.

14. Violence is a well-tried means of achieving peace and can succeed where other means are bound to fail.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 118