NOVEMBER 29

Summary

The author experiences Montgomery as a white man. As a white man he is no longer subjected to the ‘hate stare.’ As he walks into the black locality he, now a white, gets the same "shriveling" treatment that he, as a Negro, had earlier got from the whites. He therefore comes to the realization that; the racist poison exists in both.

Notes

The readers are given deep insights into the white manÂ’s false perceptions of the Negro, his life and times. The author reflectively describes how the whites beneath all their warm smiles and tall talks were in fact totally unaware of the situation of the Negroes who passed them on the street. Because the Negro long ago learned he must tell them what they want to hear, not what is. No wonder they assumed and presumed that the Negro is this or that or the other, but did not really and truly know him.

In todayÂ’s entry the author also reveals his surprisingly similar fate as a white and as a Negro. When he walks alone through a Negro quarter as a white, he gets the same "shriveling" treatment from the Negroes which he had earlier got as a Negro from the whites. He is left wondering if either race knew what went on secretly in the minds and hearts of the other.

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