Reluctant Neighbors

E. R. Braitwaite is a truly remarkable man and a very goods writer. We feels his pains and learn from his experiences. I think that the British educational system is flawed in structure so that he arrived at the post war without the slightest notions of history or the social distortion that was the British Empire. He finds that France has much less of the prejudice against skin color, but we know historically they are anti-semitic. He found less discrimination when he had recognized social standing for his success. He changed careers several times from air officer to physics to teacher to welfare officer to diplomat, but he continued to make his comments on the society around him. After all this time from his original book in 1959, the treatment of people "of color" in Britain and most of the world has not that much improved. Housing discrimination has just changed in character but not in fact? Briatwaite is a trained scientific observer from the physical sciences who used his experimental method to get results teaching. He never quite generalized that to the further living of his life, but he has remained an "observer" of value.

The author takes his readers on an exciting commuter train ride. It is the 8.05 from New Canaan, Ct. to Grand central station in New York City. For about an hour readers are exposed to a conversation on race and race relations during the author's life course between the black author and a white executive both residents of New Canaan. The author is full of rage based on the Questions asked and the answers given by his neighbor. The book is racially charged and thought-provoking because the author chronicles his life (Quite a full and productive one)which seems to be an unending struggle. The book is written in the context of his life experiences as a black man in a white world with lots of reminiscences. He has been author/diplomat/teacher. The book is quite dramatic. This book could easily have been set in a broadway play. But there is this huge gap between the views expressed by the author and his reluctant neighbor. These two commuters seemed to be operating on different planets.They never really did see eye to eye on any issue.It reminds us that we still have a long way to go in understanding the problems and fears we all have as human beings who must share this great planet earth. I wished that reluctant neighbor and the author had exchanged pleasantries before parting. That would have been the civilised thing to do. After all they were residents of the same community who were really not thrown together by chance.