|
There was a mini- series on American television in the '80s called "The Winds of War". At a certain point, a group of Americans is trapped in Poland, and falls into Nazi hands. A member of their party is Jewish, but they refuse to tell the Nazis who it is, even those who have previously uttered anti- semitic sentiments. Why? Two reasons: 1.) There are certain things that decent people do not do, among them hand Jews over to Nazis; and 2.) The Jews, after all, were Americans, and therefore owed something as countrymen. In a similar vein, the tactics of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference paid off because most Americans, even if they were racist, were not about to countenance fire- hosing protesters, and because, in the final analysis, African- Americans were Americans, not Africans...One should not underestimate appeals to common decency, nor the final triumph of larger loyalties over parochial concerns. |
