"Swim away!" or "Stay still so it can't see you!"

This is the second post in the series of posts debating a statement in an average American History textbook. There are two opposite statements both from the same textbook in this blog post that I will pit against each other in a debate. The statements are "Urged blacks to fight discrimination actively rather than patiently submit to it" and "Eventually, they (African Americans) would have enough money and the power to move up gradually in society."

First, I will debate the merits of the first statement and the drawbacks of the second. First of all, action is the only way to cause change, because the only way to cause change is to change. A change in the way you do something can make a change in the outcome of the process. If we change, at least we will try something as opposed to remaining the way we are. As a wise person somewhere said sometime in the past, "If you put the same old effort into it, you're gonna get the same old results." Although there can be an element of unpredictability, in most cases what you give is proportional to what you get. 

Contrary to this point, there are multiple things that gives the second statement an advantage. First of all, the African Americans of the time were not in a very positive situation. They were not in power or even acknowledged by the general public. If they tried to speak up at the time, they would likely be either ignored or lynched by mobs of people opposing their views. Also, they lived in bad economic conditions, getting doing only the most menial of tasks and being paid measly amounts of compensation for their grueling work. They had more important things to think about than if they could shop at the same schools. If they had focused on their citizenship instead of their life and their financial situations. It seemed to be a better solution to their situation than devoting their entire lives to fighting against discrimination.

This may seem like a cop-out, but I believe that both sides were equally valid and the solution is that those who could fight for their rights would and those who couldn't, wouldn't.