St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1949-06-10

white man is brave and deter
in the physical world. He has
He has done everything except
make friends.
We have not wrought any mir
acles in the physical world. We
have not ruled and we have not
exterminated. We have done q lot
Of fighting under the white mans
leadership and at his orders, and
have even done some fighting on
our own To keep him from crush
ing the life out Of US; but basicaIly
we are not a belligerant people.
am not claiming our non-bel-
ligerency is a racial Characteristic.
Our African ancestors fought
as many bitter wars TO extsrmin-
ate other Africans, as any other
people who ever went on the war
path. Our non-belhgerency arises
out Of the historical and geograph-
ical accident Of our presence in the
Americas as an unarmed, unor-
ganized, scattered, physically con-
spicious minority set down among
domineering, cohesive, fully
armed majority. Giving full credit
for all the heroic individual acts
of violent resistance, and even the
fun blown slave instruction be-
fore the Civil War, our struggle in
the United States has been a his
tory in the mass Of flexible, non
violent resistance.
Mass violent resistance - ex-
cept as a spontaneous defensive
action, such as cOlorcd COM
munities defending themselves
by arms In case Of race riots 49,
would have been suicidal
With all these handicaps it has
been a matter Of life and death
with us to work out a non-violent
means Of survival. Playing dumb,
even Uncle Tomming," is part Of
this technique. Our lawsuits over
the constitution, in which we take
pride, are really passive resistance.
The bulk Of the people obey until
the court declares the law uncon-
stitutional.
Never having had power in our
hands we have not had an oppor-
tunity to inflict wrongs on people
we would like them to forget. We
have suffered and are stil suffer-
ing so much that we are instinc-
lively sympathetic with any per-
son or nation which is faced with
oppression.
We do not come with armies,
navies, or planes; we look for
fOothOlds rather than beach
heads.
The result Is that people - par
ticularly people who have never
wronged US do not fear US. We
have nothing to sell except friend
ship and understanding. They can
accept what we say at face value.
One of the stories I cherish was
told me by an Eurasian. He said
Ralph Bunche was about the only
man in the u. N. mission whom
both the Arabs and the Israelis
would accept as mediator after
Count Bernadotte's death! Ralph
had no pipelines except to their
hearts.
I had this sense Of iminent des-
tiny last week at Howard Univer-
sity Commencement while Nine.
vijaya LalIshmi Pandit, Ambas-
sador Of India, was speaking. In
dia had suffered as we have suf-
fered. not only from the British,
but also from her own people who
were tools or pawns Of the British.
Out Of suffering had come conse-
Grafton to liberty and a spiritual
publication thru non-viOlent re-
sistanee which carried her not only
to freedom in spite Of British arm
aments but also enabled her to
stop impending catastrophe COM
munal warfare between India and
Pal1istan.
Now free india, through her
Ambassador, was speaking to US
as one deep understanding friend
to another. Nine. Vijaya LalIshmi
fTunIlME1rl1I -