James Baldwin, "White Racism or World Community," July 7, 1968, tape 2.

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James Baldwin
Rules this world.
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It still has the power
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it still has the power if it will do
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it to change the structure
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of South Africa.
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It has the power if it will to
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prevent the death of another Martin Luther King
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Jr.
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It has the power to the will to enforce
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my government to cease dropping bombs in Southeast
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Asia.
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These are crimes committed in the name
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of the Christian church
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and no more than we can then we absolve
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the Germans were saying I couldn't help it.
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I didn't know what it was about.
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I knew of people being taken away in the night
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but they had nothing to do with me.
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We were very hard on the Germans about that.
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But Germany is also a Christian nation.
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And what the Germans did in the
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second world war
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since they are human and we are human too.
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There is no guarantee
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that we can do that.
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And in fact
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we are doing that right now.
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When a structure
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matter what structure it may be
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a state
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or a church
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or a country
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becomes too expensive for the world
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to afford
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it is longer responsive
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to the needs of the world
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that structure sooner
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or later.
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And quite apart from the will of any man
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that structure is doomed
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if the Christian
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faith cannot recover
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its lord and savior
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Jesus Christ.
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Then we will discover the meaning
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of what he said what he meant when he
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said in
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so far as you've done it unto
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the least of these
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you've done it unto me.
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Thank you.
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Ladies and gentlemen
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I am sure that
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behind your applause
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there was a conviction
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and the impression
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that what you have heard spoken
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by our friend to you
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there is a strong
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person of
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interest a person to
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be
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in and the life
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of this our brother
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really belongs to
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what he has recognized
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as being right
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and just
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and to be hope for
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and to be prayed for.
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After having heard this
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first part of this
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afternoon's addresses
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I know I can
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give it to
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a lot calmer of him
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and hope that
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we shall have similar
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the same
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impression from what
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he represented as
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representative of
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the white race really
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has to terror to hours.
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Who was a great deal belong
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to this kind
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and sort of race.
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Not
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so you
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imposed on me an impossible order
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clearly out of the question that I should
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be able to
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communicate with you
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in terms as passionate
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and sincere
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as those to which we have just
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listened.
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There is much in what we have heard
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on which we will wish to reflect
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and which we shall long
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remember
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but as we reflect
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on that remarkable statement.
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I would ask you with me this afternoon
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to turn to
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look at these great problems of
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race
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and the world community
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from a different angle from the angle
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of international affairs.
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I had said once that I jumped at the opportunity
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of coming here before I knew the
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ordeal which was prepared for me.
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It was not easy because
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I'm only on short leave of absence
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from the United Nations in New York
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and there we in
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prison are delegates were
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or severe sentences
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in continuous servitude.
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We survive on a thin diet
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of diplomatic oratory
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we labored under the lack
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of constant crises
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and we can very seldom escape
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but I was given a ticket of leave to
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attend a United Nations
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Conference which finished in Bucharest
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yesterday on Saturday
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and another which starts in Geneva
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tomorrow on Monday.
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And when I was asked if I could escape again
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to come here on today on the
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Sunday it seemed to me
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physically impossible.
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But when the World Council of Churches
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makes an invitation
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it brooks no excuses
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and recognizes no barriers
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it encourages us to
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make the maximum use of the Sabbath
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I was quickly persuaded to
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is almost on the direct route
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between the queen
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between Bucharest
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and Geneva
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and I discovered that the World
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Council has any
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human Menocal ingenuity
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both in arranging heavenly transport
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and in disdaining all
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earthly divisions
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and distances.
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So here I am and it seems to me
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by no less than a miracle.
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I'm very happy to have been enabled to
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get here
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and glad to be able to pay my respects
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to this university famous university
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in these modern times.
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There is no place like a university.
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If you want to make a protest
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there is no place like a university if you
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want to start a campaign.
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And to be in Sweden
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for Sweden is an honor to lead
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an international endeavor.
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That seems to be an inexhaustible supply
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of Swedes to give us a lead.
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There are innumerable examples
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when the secretary general needed a man
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to tackle them in the Middle East.
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One of the most gigantic
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and one of the most daunting assignments
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ever to be allotted to one man.
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He sent for Ambassador Gooner yachting
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Amanda whose steadiness of nerve
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and patient
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determination
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and wise judgment time that paid tribute.
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I once had the privilege of serving on a United
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Nations group set up to advise
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on South Africa questions
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under the chairmanship of Ambassador
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Oliver Dial
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who is as gifted
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and as tireless as her
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famous husband.
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There is no permanent representative
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at the United Nations more highly
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respected than Sweden's
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present ambassador
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Ferk Austro.
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None of us concerned
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with the world community will ever forget the
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outstanding life
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and work of Dagg
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that is
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there is no country in the world
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which has given more than Sweeden
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in international leadership.
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I was Mordovia happy to respond
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to a call from the World Council of Churches
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certainly I have no religious qualification
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and I trust no one imagines that I have any
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real right to be on such a respectable
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platform.
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But a few years ago
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I was lucky enough at the suggestion
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of the World Council to travel through
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Africa West
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Africa East Africa
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and Central Africa
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with Professor Zaid K.
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methods.
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He was one of the most remarkable men
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I have ever met.
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When he died in America a few months ago
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he was mourned through throughout
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Africa
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and amongst all the delegates at the United Nations
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where he had been the first Ambassador
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of Botswana.
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I learned to respect him
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and to love him as he was respected
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and loved by so many throughout
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Africa and in Geneva
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and New York
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and in Washington
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with his gentleness
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and his good humor
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and his steadiness
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and his devotion
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and his courage.
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He was amongst the leaders
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of Africa in his day
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happy to think that his son is amongst us
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here today.
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And I will always be grateful to the World Council
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of Churches for giving me
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the opportunity to work
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with him in Africa
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having stated my reasons for welcoming the invitation
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from the World Council
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and having told you
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how good I was to come
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and why I'm so glad that I did.
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I must say that I am alarmed by
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the magnitude
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of the subject of our discussion
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and certainly my alarm has not been diminished
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by listening to the
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passionate speech to which we have just listened
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which was worth coming.
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May I say several thousand
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miles to hear.
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I'm no expert
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and I'm no scholar.
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I am by training
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and administrator
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and buying to Nation politician.
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I have lived most of my working life amongst
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Arabs
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and Africans
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and West Indians.
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With two intervals amongst Greeks
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and Turks
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and then for the past seven years I have
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worked in or for the United Nations.
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I claim to know something about the world community
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but I admit that I know very little at first
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hand at least about white racism
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even about the British I'm ignorant.
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But I went overseas when I was 21 years
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of age and except for short leaves
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I have not returned home since.
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But I must go on to say that I am
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deeply concerned
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and interested in the subject of race.
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I care more about racial justice
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and racial equality I think
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than anything else in the world.
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I should dearly love to make some contribution
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in those causes.
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I believe that race is the dominant problem
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of our time
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coupled as it is
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with the world problems of poverty
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and population
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and youth.
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I am convinced that race is the most explosive
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and the most dangerous fuel
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which the world must face.
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But again I must warn you that I cannot speak
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as a sociologist
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or an anthropologist
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I can speak about race solely as an administrator
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and a politician who has graduated
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from the School of
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colonial administration to the University
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of International Affairs.
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With that limited qualification
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I want to address myself to three
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main questions.
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What effect on race relations
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and racial animosity has been caused
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by the end of colonialism
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and the consequent creation of the new nations
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of Asia and Africa.
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What are the present dangers of racial
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confrontation on a world wide scale.
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What prospect is that of reducing
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racial tension into in international relations
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and avoiding racial conflict
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and working towards racial understanding
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and cooperation.
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I shall endeavor to answer those difficult questions
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by speaking strictly from my own
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experience
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and from my own conviction
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first I can speak
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with personal knowledge
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about the end of colonialism
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in nearly the whole of the first half
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of this century as you know
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the world was still dominated by the
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so-called great powers.
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The edifice of colonialism
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still stood complete.
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But in the third quarter of the century
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we have just seen one of the most astonishing
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transformations in history.
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The wind of change has blown the
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old structure of colonialism
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clean away
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the French the Beldon
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and the Dutch empires have disappeared
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or the greatest empire of all
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the British Empire has been transformed
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into a free commonwealth.
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During the first decade of my
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overseas service my
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country governed a quarter of the population
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of the world.
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Now in the British Commonwealth all about
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1 percent of the 750
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billion people of the Commonwealth
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live in independent
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sovereign countries.
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The fact that we are having some trouble
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with the 1 percent
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does not take away from this speed
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or from the far reaching effect
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of that sweeping achievement.
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The number of countries represented at the United
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Nations has more than doubled
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and more than half the members of the United
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Nations are now after a wayf
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I am concerned today to discuss the effect
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of this revolutionary development
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not on the Asians
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and the Africans.
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That would alone take up more all
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my time.
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We are today speaking of white racism
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and the world community.
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So I wish to make some comment on the effect
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of this change on the White nations on
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the White West.
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What has been their reaction to the end of
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empire
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and the emergence of the new nations of Asia
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and Africa.
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And the answer to that question is disturbing
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and depressing.
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We might have hoped to see a greater
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readiness to help the new nations
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in tackling their manifold tasks
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and the growing eagerness to enable
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them to overcome their formidable obstacles.
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Some of them such as are not for
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frontiers being the
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direct legacy of the colonial
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era.
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We might have hoped for a recognition that
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the new nations faced an exciting
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challenge which called
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out for co-operation
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and assistance from the experienced
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and the older nations.
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We might at least have expected a recognition
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that the prosperity of the old world
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will in the end be dependent
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on the stable progress of the new
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realisation that the old nations
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cannot safely survive
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as islands of affluence in a sea
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of poverty and misery.
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What we have seen as being something very different.
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There is I am sad to say
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a growing apathy in many
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Western nations towards world affairs.
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The apathy turns to antipathy.
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There is a creeping indifference
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and then in growing irritation
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an inclination to escape
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from distant problems so perplexing.
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There is a turning away in bewilderment
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and in suburban selfishness
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or in what some calls prosperous
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provincialism from
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the bad news coming from Asia
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and Africa to
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use Bobrow Bordes words
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in the world at large.
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We are still tribalists he says.
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The child that styles in distant
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Bihar is not our child.
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The millions without land
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and bread in Latin America lie beyond
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the limits of our imagination
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pitiful ambitions of illiterate Africa
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are not our concern
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for us.
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The humanity for which we feel a
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full moral that obligation
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runs up to the frontier
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when I am speaking in my own country.
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I used the strongest language
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in attacking the apathy
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and the antipathy.
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I do not need or wish to do so here
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in less than a quarter of a century my
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country has enfranchised
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and brought into the councils of the world.
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A quarter of the population of the world.
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And what is more each British
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colonial territory attaining independence
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in our Commonwealth did so
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on the basis of free elections
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and representative government
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and independent courts.
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We can rightly be proud of the record.
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It is not surprising that the relinquishment
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of empire is so complete
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and so rapid that
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should produce a reaction.
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I'm proud of the achievement
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and I'm concerned about the reaction.
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It is not for me to speak about similar reactions
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in the United States
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or in other Western countries.
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We are all familiar
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with the evidence.
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There has been a succession of failures
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and an escalation of
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frustrations in Asia
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and in Africa
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the upheavals in the Congo
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Ghana Nigeria
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the stranglehold of race domination
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in southern Africa
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the perpetuation of hate
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and bloodshed in the Middle East.
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And last but by no means least the
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Vietnam War
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all contribute to the general malaise
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of public feeling
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the forces of violence
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and domination seem
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to be in the ascendant.
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My generation has endured two
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world wars
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and now whatever it looks in the world
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seems not a better hope for the future
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but destruction
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and degradation
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and mounting danger.
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Older people feel they've had enough.
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Not perhaps surprising that they should seek
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to opt out
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of further international involvement
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in the effort.
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Their attitude might be summed up in the old
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versus void of strong
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desire and fear.
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Life white ocean crust.
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No more strife
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die little bark to steer
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with the tide
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and near the shore.
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That is the prevailing
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feeling that I find amongst many of the Western
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people in these days I should.
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I shall presently suggest to you
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that we can expect a very different attitude
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from the new generation.
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But for the moment I sum up my
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answer to my first question by saying
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that the new world
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which has emerged in the past quarter
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of a century with the end of colonialism
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has created in the minds of many of
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those in the White West
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a confusion
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and a disillusion
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which breed isolationist.
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I don't know if this could be called white racism
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but it is surely negative
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Barram unhealthy.
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It increases the danger of a division
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a gulf
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a gulf in the world between the White West
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and the rest
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it makes it all the more necessary to turn
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to the new generation
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to shake off the pessimism
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and the defeatism of the old.
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Now let me count how
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the media
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consider with you the the second
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question I raised
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the question what are the dangers of racial
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confrontation
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on a worldwide scale.
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While there has been a tendency to turn away
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from international responsibilities
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amongst the countries of the white West
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and a growing disenchantment
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with development aid
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and generally a supercilious
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attitude to the failures of the new nations.
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There has been a widening of the gulf
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between the two worlds
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the world of the affluent
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comfortable complacent
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white people of the old nations
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on the one hand
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and the hungry overcrowded
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discontented coloured
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people of the new nations on the other.
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I have long felt that this gulf creates
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the greatest danger in the world.
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So of many of us
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you will remember or remember what Oussama
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said these are
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his words.
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There is a clear prospect
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that racial conflict if we cannot
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curb and finally eliminate it
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will grow into a destructive monster
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compared to which the religious
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and ideological conflicts of the
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past will seem like family
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quarrels.
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Such a conflict will
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eat away the possibilities for
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good of all that mankind
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has hitherto achieved
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and reduce men to the lowest
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and most besty a level of intolerance
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and hatred.
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This for the sake of all our children whatever
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their race and color
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must not be permitted to have
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we cannot claim that there's been any improvement
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in recent years.
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Indeed my own belief is that the situation
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has become much more serious
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and much more dangerous.
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The greatest seriousness
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and the greater danger to drive not only
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from worse relations between the
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races.
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The greater danger arises from the fact
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that the problem of race is now Indic
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strict complete tied
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to the problem of poverty
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and the problem of population
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and the problem of youth.
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We see the danger in
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stark and crude form in Africa.
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The forces of African nationalism
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have come down through West
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and East and Central Africa right up
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to the rivers and Beezy
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now north of the river.
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There are more than 200 million
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Africans controlling their own destinies
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south of the river
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except in three small territories
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formerly British colonies.
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No single African has any effective
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say in the central government of his country
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who imagines that that confrontation.
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A confrontation across the river
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between African nationalism
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to the north
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and white supremacy to the south
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can be easily
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or quickly
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or even peaceably settled.
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I come from Bucharest
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where for the past few days the heads of
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the special specialized agencies
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of the United Nations have been discussing
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with the secretary general
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and some score of national delegations.
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International questions of aid
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and trade and development.
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We deplored the fact that the first development
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decades had failed to produce the results
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we hope for.
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We had to admit that the conference on trade
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and development in New Delhi this summer
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had made very little progress.
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I came away from Bucharest
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and now go on to the Economic
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and Social Council in Geneva
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within the womb of overwhelming sense
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of the magnitude of the task
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and the inadequacy of the efforts so far
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are made to cope
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with it.
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We know the staggering statistics
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all too well.
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Half the people of the world
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live near or below the starvation
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level.
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By 1980
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there will be another thousand million mouths
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to be fed.
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In India alone for instance the population
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increases by a million a month.
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I used to speak of the need to narrow
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the gap between the
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rich and poor nations of the world.
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I don't anymore.
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The gap is not Natalie.
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It is rapidly getting wider
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in the poorer countries including Great countries
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like India and China.
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The average yearly earnings
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are now about 30 pounds per head
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and we are told by the Economist that
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with luck
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the figure might rise to 50 pounds
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per head per year by the end of the
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century.
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But meanwhile at the other end of
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the scale in the United States
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the average earning per head is now a thousand
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pounds a year.
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And at present trends by the end of the century
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the average per head in America will increase
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to two thousand pounds a year.
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The ratio will not be 30 to a thousand
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but 50 to 2000.
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That's enough now to the gap.
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It's getting rapidly wider
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the gap is growing into a gaping
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gulf
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and all the time the monster
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the population
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is gaining on us.
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We have to add to the dangers of poverty
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and the dangers of population the dangers of
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youth.
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When I went down through Africa
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with Xade K. Matthews a year
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or two ago they told
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us in one country after another that more
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than half the population
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is under 20 years of age.
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Now more of the young people are going to school
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they're not going to be content to go back
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to scratch a miserable livelihood
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by antiquated methods
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from eroded land as their fathers did before
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them.
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We have precious little time.
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All these dangers of poverty
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and population
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and youth are desperately
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serious in themselves.
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But it is the addition of the race issue
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which so greatly adds to the danger
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guna Mardel was saying
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only recently the most ugly prospect
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of our world that could be imagined
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would be an international class
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struggle between the poor
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and the rich nations poisoned
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by the ratio complex
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in the world in which I live in the United Nations.
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These combined tissues of poverty
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population youth
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and race increasingly
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dominate our proceedings.
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They are issues so serious
James Baldwin
and so dangerous that
James Baldwin
they demand not only action by individuals
James Baldwin
and by governments
James Baldwin
but by international initiative too.
James Baldwin
While I am constantly conscious
James Baldwin
of the dangers I am equally conscious
James Baldwin
of the limitations of the action open
James Baldwin
to us
James Baldwin
this is a source of constant
James Baldwin
frustration.
James Baldwin
We have to recognize what can be done
James Baldwin
and what cannot.
James Baldwin
We must face those limitations
James Baldwin
honestly and admit them.
James Baldwin
Vain gestures
James Baldwin
and sweeping declarations will not
James Baldwin
solve anything.
James Baldwin
They may even do harm.
James Baldwin
They may raise false hopes
James Baldwin
the forces of domination
James Baldwin
and reaction are strong
James Baldwin
and arrogant
James Baldwin
and well-organized
James Baldwin
and will lead
James Baldwin
the forces of conciliation
James Baldwin
and understanding are often weak
James Baldwin
and hesitant
James Baldwin
and scarcely that at all.
James Baldwin
We should do no good by failing to
James Baldwin
see the power
James Baldwin
of our adversaries adversaries
James Baldwin
or by attempting to do too much too
James Baldwin
soon.
James Baldwin
I often say that the task is one not for
James Baldwin
the cavalry
James Baldwin
but for the sappers.
James Baldwin
So it is in southern Africa.
James Baldwin
There are some who say that all we have to do is to
James Baldwin
sound the bugles
James Baldwin
and all of the charge
James Baldwin
something less much less dramatic
James Baldwin
and less spectacular.
James Baldwin
Maybe all that we can achieve
James Baldwin
but we must show just what I would wish
James Baldwin
to emphasize even
James Baldwin
with those limitations.
James Baldwin
We must show that on our side we will not
James Baldwin
give up.
James Baldwin
We must show that even when
James Baldwin
the positive action open to us
James Baldwin
is limited we shall not fail to take
James Baldwin
it.
James Baldwin
We must show that for us there will be no going
James Baldwin
back
James Baldwin
and no betrayal.
James Baldwin
There was a time in the last century
James Baldwin
when my country took an honorable lead
James Baldwin
when political leaders of all parties
James Baldwin
worked first for the abolition of slavery
James Baldwin
and then for the suppression of the slave trade.
James Baldwin
Parliament voted twenty million pounds
James Baldwin
a vast sum in those days to free the slaves.
James Baldwin
The Royal Navy for nearly
James Baldwin
half a century a further great cost
James Baldwin
for the slave trade on the high seas
James Baldwin
reactionary opposition in parliament.
James Baldwin
The obstinacy of
James Baldwin
white colonists the support of foreign
James Baldwin
powers all were overcome.

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Title: James Baldwin, "White Racism or World Community," July 7, 1968, tape 2.
Description: Address by James Baldwin to a meeting of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala.
Creator: Baldwin, James, 1924-1987. (speaker)
Date: 1968
July 7, 1968
Type of resource: sound recording-nonmusical
Genre: speeches
Form: audiotapes
Extent: 1 sound tape reel : analog, 7-1/2 ips
Language: English
Subject names: National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
World Council of Churches.
Carmichael, Stokely, 1941-1998.
Topics: Race relations--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Rights status: Contact repository for more information
Physical location: ARCHIVES 03-0529h; Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA
Identifier (local): 03-0529h_baldwin_speech_tape2
PID (Persistent Identifier): islandora:116377

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James Baldwin, "White Racism or World Community," July 7, 1968, tape 2.

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