What if the differences between social strata stem not from genomics or inherent xcellence or even dollars, but merely differences in knowledge? Would this not mean the whole Pyramid is built on shifting sands?" I speculated such a suggestion could be seen as a serious deviancy. Melphi seemed delited. "Try this for deviancy: fabricants are mirrors held up to purebloods' consciences; what purebloods see reflected there sickens them. So they blame you for holding up the mirror." I hid my shock by asking when purebloods might blame themselves. Melphi relplied, "History suggests, not until they are made to.
You don__ understand,_ my dad said. __hey stop you._ __ho? What are you talking about?_ my mom asked. __hat__ why I was being cautious._ __ho stops you?_ __he police. If you__e white, or maybe Oriental, they let you drive however you want. But if you__e not, they stop you._ __ho told you that?_ __he guys at the diner. That__ what they say. If you__e black or if you__e brown, they automatically think you__e done something wrong._ __afa, that__ ridiculous. We__e lived here for fifteen years. We__e citizens._ __he police don__ know that by looking at us. They see a brown face through the windshield and boom! Sirens!_ My mom shook her head. __hat__ what that was about?_ __ didn__ want to give them reason to stop me._ __ou were driving like a blind man, Rafa. That will give them reason to stop you._ __verybody else just has to obey the law. We have to obey it twice as well._ __ut that doesn__ mean you have to go twice as slow as everybody else!_ The light turned green and my dad brought the car out of first. We cruised under the overpass, a shadow draping over the car like a blanket. __ext time, just try to blend in with everyone else and you__l be fine,_ my mom offered. __he way of the world,_ my dad said. __hat?_ my mom asked as we emerged back into the sunlight. __ust trying to blend in. That__ the way of the world._ __ell, that__ the way of America, at least,_ my mom said.
The Book of Unknown Americans
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You don__ understand,_ my dad said. __hey stop you._ __ho? What are you talking about?_ my mom asked. __hat__ why I was being cautious._ __ho stops you?_ __he police. If you__e white, or maybe Oriental, they let you drive however you want. But if you__e not, they stop you._ __ho told you that?_ __he guys at the diner. That__ what they say. If you__e black or if you__e brown, they automatically think you__e done something wrong._ __afa, that__ ridiculous. We__e lived here for fifteen years. We__e citizens._ __he police don__ know that by looking at us. They see a brown face through the windshield and boom! Sirens!_ My mom shook her head. __hat__ what that was about?_ __ didn__ want to give them reason to stop me._ __ou were driving like a blind man, Rafa. That will give them reason to stop you._ __verybody else just has to obey the law. We have to obey it twice as well._ __ut that doesn__ mean you have to go twice as slow as everybody else!_ The light turned green and my dad brought the car out of first. We cruised under the overpass, a shadow draping over the car like a blanket. __ext time, just try to blend in with everyone else and you__l be fine,_ my mom offered. __he way of the world,_ my dad said. __hat?_ my mom asked as we emerged back into the sunlight. __ust trying to blend in. That__ the way of the world._ __ell, that__ the way of America, at least,_ my mom said.
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The overwhelming tendency of markets is to bring people together, break down prejudices, persuade people of the need to cooperate regardless of class, race, religion, sex/gender, and physical ability. The same is obviously and especially true of sexual orientation. It is the market that rewards people who put aside their biases and seek gains through trade. This is why states devoted to racialist and hateful policies always resort to violence in control of the marketplace.
But maybe they were barbarians. Maybe this is what most barbarians look like. They look like everybody else.
Man is the bridge of good as much as evil. He hurts and he loves. He divides and he unites. He destroys and he rebuilds. He kills and he saves lives. Yet, he denies or pretends that he does not know the other side of him. He only knows of himself as the protagonist, the righteous, and the honorable one. Others, who do not belong to his fold, are the villains, the devils, and the low-life beings. Ironically, the less he knows of his other self the more he becomes what he derides and denigrates. He is the tragic paradox of what he claims to be despite the evidence of his action that proves otherwise. (Danny Castillones Sillada, Man: The Paragon of All Paradoxes)
Larger than life character; a couple of hundred years ago he would have been a pirate. "When in evil company, try to blend in" - that was one of his.
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.