Separation and Segregation Breed Social Contempt
Today’s words of wisdom come from African-American labor leader A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979). Randolph was a major leader in the 1960s civil rights movement and the head of the 1963 March on Washington that featured Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. He had previously led the March on Washington Movement during the 1940s. Randolph is most famous for organizing and leading the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly African-American labor union.
As a keen social observer, Randolph tasked himself with analyzing problems and suggesting solution-based approaches. Below, he describes the process by which segregation and other forms of social separation can lead to a chain reaction of emotions leading to irrational hatred. Think about how Randolph’s words apply to our current world.
Self-segregation is just as much a catalyst for distrust as forced separation… and we see this idea at work in our society day after day after day.
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“Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they do not know each other; they do not know each other because they cannot communicate; they cannot communicate because they are separated.”
Below, Dr. Michael Lindsey delves into the topic of mental illness in the African-American community. The mental health researcher acknowledges how traumatic experiences dating back to slavery still resonate today.
