Originally Posted by
Electricmastro
I remember what Booker T. Washington, who was enslaved as a child and lived through Jim Crow, wrote in his 1901 autobiography Up from Slavery, which was:
“Few people ever stopped, I found, when looking at his pictures, to inquire whether Mr. Tanner was a Negro painter, a French painter, or a German painter. They simply knew that he was able to produce something which the world wanted--a great painting--and the matter of his colour did not enter into their minds. When a Negro girl learns to cook, to wash dishes, to sew, or write a book, or a Negro boy learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet potatoes, or to produce butter, or to build a house, or to be able to practise medicine, as well or better than some one else, they will be rewarded regardless of race or colour. In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any difference in race, religion, or previous history will not long keep the world from what it wants.
I think that the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to whether or not it can make itself of such indispensible value that the people in the town and the state where we reside will feel that our presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being of the community. No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward. This is a great human law which cannot be permanently nullified.“
And the impression I get is that, no matter what injustice has happened, is happening, or will happen, whether it was an injustice in regards to race, or sexuality, or class, or so on and so forth, is that persistent hard work and actively making yourself a valued contributor of society really will pay off, and help you grow ever closer to the privilege of reward, and perhaps progressively help change society all the better for it sooner or later.
This isn’t to say all injustice will end tomorrow because of this, but to simply give up at roadblocks, like you said, and come to conclusions such as life isn’t worth living probably does an injustice to one’s self that can also be damaging.