They lived in big cities too distracted to care what the colored people did as long as they did it to themselves, and that was the greatest blessing … - Isabel Wilkerson

Contrary to modern-day assumptions, for much of the history of the United States — from the Draft Riots of the 1860s to the violence over desegregation a century later — riots were often carried out by disaffected whites against groups perceived as threats to their survival.

In our era, it is not enough to be tolerant. You tolerate mosquitoes in the summer, a rattle in an engine, the gray slush that collects at the crosswalk in winter. You tolerate what you would rather not have to deal with and wish would go away. It is no honor to be tolerated. Every spiritual tradition says love your neighbor as yourself, not tolerate them.

unless people are willing to transcend their fears, endure discomfort and derision, suffer the scorn of loved ones and neighbors and co-workers and friends, fall into disfavor of perhaps everyone they know, face exclusion and even banishment, it would be numerically impossible, humanly impossible, for everyone to be that man.