Maybe one day in our lifetimes, India will pass something like the Civil Rights Act. Something that explicitly outlaws discrimination, segregation, etc. And enables real expensive lawsuits based on outcomes data. You don't even have to show intent to discriminate.
https://twitter.com/TheBombayBombil/status/1460693603353722880
In India, of course, a whole host of institutions and vast swathes of elites explicitly and openly call for discrimination against Muslim and de facto segregation of them. They don't even hide intent.
I get the pessimism in the replies here and I share it for the most part. I don't see it happening anytime soon.
But I should point out that the Civil Rights Act didn't pass easily either. Many lives were lost for it. It wasn't some fortuitous progressive legislation.
But I should point out that the Civil Rights Act didn't pass easily either. Many lives were lost for it. It wasn't some fortuitous progressive legislation.
It was something achieved by activists and conscientious leaders over decades, if not centuries. William Lloyd Garrison over a century before it had to scream at his own people for decades, calling them evil and racists and sinners to even get rid of slavery. Then came Jim Crow.
No one was really optimistic about the Civil Rights Act passing in the 1960s either. Almost all presidents wanted to punt it to the next generation. "America is not ready for it yet" is a favorite line of bigots and their sympathizers. Even Lincoln & LBJ didn't start purehearted.
The closest thing we have to William Lloyd Garrison is probably Ravish Kumar.
Whenever people are like, arre baba, why you get so rude when bashing sanghis and trumpists, I'm reminded of this quote by William Lloyd Garrison. Read this and memorize it if people tell you to chill about politics and be nice even to fascists. 
"With reasonable men, I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste arguments where they will certainly be lost."
William Lloyd Garrison
William Lloyd Garrison
"That which is not just is not law"
William Lloyd Garrison
Oh I could keep posting his stuff all day that seems written for today's India. Do look up his writings. Much universal applicability.
He's one man who changed America way more profoundly than usually credited.
William Lloyd Garrison
Oh I could keep posting his stuff all day that seems written for today's India. Do look up his writings. Much universal applicability.
He's one man who changed America way more profoundly than usually credited.
He wasn't the first to come up with anti abolitionism. It was a common sentiment among several Christian communities. For centuries.
He was however the first to loudly and repeatedly scream at his own people about it. Relentlessly. Gaining influence. Changing minds.
He was however the first to loudly and repeatedly scream at his own people about it. Relentlessly. Gaining influence. Changing minds.
Lincoln gets top credit for ending slavery and dude did do good. But remember, he started off as a "moderate", personally opposed to slavery but politically, trying to find "common sense" solutions. Like buying all slaves & creating a second Liberia. And he opposed mixing.
He went from that to gradually going full on anti slavery and eventually taking a bullet in the head for it because of William Lloyd Garrison who staked out a position for truth, justice, equality, humanity. And kept screaming at bigots as well as moderates, WTF???
And of course, Frederick Douglass. But he'll be the subject of a different thread.
"Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race."
He wrote this in 1838!
He wrote this in 1838!
What makes William Lloyd Garrison's writings and speeches seem especially relevant today is that he wrote in a very simple direct style, very much at odds with the rhetorical flourishes of his contemporaries like Lincoln. He wanted to get his message out to everyone, not patrons.
Look up and read William Lloyd Garrison's writings and it's like whoa, did he travel in time and get a copy of Strunk & White? It is exactly what we today consider good writing. Not Tharoorish flourishes but just plain simple thoughts. Expressed simply, directly.
Around the same time that Garrison was writing his humanist screeds in simple prose that could be written in the 21st century, Herman Melville was making a white whale of the English language in Moby Dick. 😂😂😂
Can't find the exact article, but approx quote from memory
"My duty is to speaking the truth, not to correcting the lie. I will not spend a moment of time convincing a tyrant to not be a tyrant. It is each human's duty to oppose tyranny and support truth. Not just mine."
- WLG
"My duty is to speaking the truth, not to correcting the lie. I will not spend a moment of time convincing a tyrant to not be a tyrant. It is each human's duty to oppose tyranny and support truth. Not just mine."
- WLG
William Lloyd Garrison was also a hardcore feminist in 1840, staking out positions that in 2021 might be called "too woke" by some. In 1840, dude traveled to London for an Antislavery Conference, but refused to participate because women were excluded from it.
Big impact!
Big impact!
Come to think of it, William Lloyd Garrison was the first public "intersectionality" advocate. He was fiercely opposed to slavery, but he refused to ignore other inequities just for political expediency.
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