Thought for the Day

"Frequently we tried to point out the absurdity of racism in the hope that our white compatriots would be embarrassed into dropping something that could be so ludicrous. And so I would suggest that instead of skin color we should substitute a large nose, since I possessed one. Can you imagine if we were to say that this university was reserved not for whites, as happened under apartheid, but for large noses only-that would be the chief requirement, not academic ability? And if you were afflicted with a small nose, to have to apply to the Minister of Small Nose Affairs for permission to attend the university reserved for large noses. Everyone in most audiences where I told this story would be rolling in the aisles at the stupidity and the absurdity of it all. It would have been wonderful had it been just a laughing matter of this kind. Sadly it was anything but."

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness. (New York: Doubleday, 1999). Pg. 93.

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