Chaos at the Counter

Segregated Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's is a long way from modern-day Brooklyn. When I started the book "The Help" by Katheryn Stockett. It was nearly impossible to picture a town with such resilience and cataclysmic change. The Help is a story narrated by three completely different women, two african american maids and a white farmers daughter living in an disheveled Jackson, Mississippi at the height of its social chaos. 


One of the more striking scenes was where three of the colored maids are describing the famous lunch counter sit ins all across the south in horror. On the local news they show six young african-american men sitting at the counter while white teenagers and grown white men smearing ketchup and salt and french fries in their hair and dumping food all over their heads. They sat there in peaceful protest for hours, ignored by the staff and picked apart by the media until closing.


So where are the lines drawn. When you sit there and don't turn around don't talk only sit showing immense courage, while the people behind you the bullies and tormentors are the real cowards. Cowering behind the old southern standards afraid of the change and those who are open to change are too afraid to speak out or voice their opinions because of everyone else around them. 


We usually associate bravery and courage with boldness and blind valiance. But is is often the bravest people who are silent, who take the abuse and refrain from fighting back out of a combination of strength and wit. The peaceful but self restrained ones should be commended and not beaten down. The lines are drawn.