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Publicity for the Burlington Self-Survey on Human Relations
Page 2
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2. more you'll create a problem." -- This, despite a number of obvious discriminatory practices. What they really meant was that they accepted these practices as normal behaviour. Discrimination was a part of the status quo and nothing had occurred [recently] to change it. They were right. It hadn't. Therein lies the special significance of my story. It is a success story, in its own unspectacular way, that could happen in anybody's home town -- because in almost everybody's town there are some discriminatory practices and you won't have to ask many people before you're told, "We have no problem here." Try it sometime. The story was begun by just one person. He was a college student, a Negro, who had read of Self-Surveys in other communities and wanted to start one while home on his summer vacation. He and I managed to get a small group of local citizens together one hot summer night to discuss the proposal. There was a lot of disagreement there. Individuals held strong convictions regarding practices in Burlington. But their personal experiences on which these convictions were based didn't jibe. The plain fact was that no one had the whole picture. "There was, however, agreement on one thing," reads the Survey report. "Though Negroes number a small percentage in our community, their opportunity for self-realization is important to everyone. The greater the earning capacity of every individual, the greater is the prosperity of the community.
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2. more you'll create a problem." -- This, despite a number of obvious discriminatory practices. What they really meant was that they accepted these practices as normal behaviour. Discrimination was a part of the status quo and nothing had occurred [recently] to change it. They were right. It hadn't. Therein lies the special significance of my story. It is a success story, in its own unspectacular way, that could happen in anybody's home town -- because in almost everybody's town there are some discriminatory practices and you won't have to ask many people before you're told, "We have no problem here." Try it sometime. The story was begun by just one person. He was a college student, a Negro, who had read of Self-Surveys in other communities and wanted to start one while home on his summer vacation. He and I managed to get a small group of local citizens together one hot summer night to discuss the proposal. There was a lot of disagreement there. Individuals held strong convictions regarding practices in Burlington. But their personal experiences on which these convictions were based didn't jibe. The plain fact was that no one had the whole picture. "There was, however, agreement on one thing," reads the Survey report. "Though Negroes number a small percentage in our community, their opportunity for self-realization is important to everyone. The greater the earning capacity of every individual, the greater is the prosperity of the community.
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