"Put him in a black skin"...

[sheshe2]

@jedi-shaman.bsky.social

— Sabriga Turgon (@sabriga.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T13:45:00.057Z

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10254213-74-in-1944-a-16-year-old-black-student-in-columbus-ohio

[Deuxcents]

1. A very mature and wise young student. Wonder what life had in store for her/ him

[brer cat]

2. Outstanding response!

[DoBW]

3. wow

could be the shortest masterpiece ever written

[anciano]

4. It's only one sentence, but it speaks volumes.

[calimary]

9. No Kidding!!!

And it says EVERYTHING.

[Cha]

5. What a Sweetheart ... Clearly a

Brilliant little boy. 💔

Mahalo, she~

[TheRickles]

7. FWIW, Google AI couldn't identify the student, or give their correct gender.

[erronis]

8. I'm sure all those "intelligent agents" couldn't identify Hitler's racial makeup or his gender either.

I don't actually G.A.S. what google or other engines cough up from their intestines. They are trained on so much garbage in that actual historical facts (if known) are submerged in the effluvium of crap.

[TheRickles]

12. Yeesh, I just thought it would be interesting to learn more about whoever came up with that brilliant quote.

I wasn't trying to make any grand political or philosophical statement about AI or Google or anything else.

[erronis]

14. Sorry. I tend to get carried away on the enshittification of the internet.

I appreciate totally your research!

[TheRickles]

16. Got it. No worries - all is forgiven. :-)

[IronLionZion]

22. See my post #21

it's from a book. There's also a movie about the author's travels researching the content for the book.

[Cha]

10. Oh dear.. now what?

[dweller]

26. Appears DU

is in a snit again





✌🏻

[colorado_ufo]

32. Boy or girl?

I couldn't tell.

[maveric]

6. Powerful

[swong19104]

11. We should do that with everyone

in the present administration. Starting with Miller.

Hey Miller, at least your bald head will be "colored".

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. this sounds a lil too good to be true tbh, mainly because of the utter lack of correlating evidence

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Today some have the attitude "Hey we don't need to see the trees because we see a forest." . . . nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. I don't need made-up stories to know that living in a white supremacy hurts Black people.

[IronLionZion]

21. It's from a book called "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste:_The_Origins_of_Our_Discontents

It was adapted into a film called Origin, which shows how she conducted her research for the book
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_(film)

[WhiskeyGrinder]

23. What is from the book?

[IronLionZion]

24. The story in the OP

[WhiskeyGrinder]

25. Does the book name the child who wrote this essay, the school where they studied, who sponsored the contest?

Or is it just a repetition of this anecdote?

[Ilikepurple]

28. Is the identity or even the verity of the anecdote the most important point here?

I’m failing to understand why this statement needs to be verified to a degree not seemingly required from most posts. Is it because it’s found in a meme? That involves an insightful idea from a young black American in the 40s? I agree that the truth of the matter is often important, but what seems to be more important is the message of the idea. There is some reason your default position is skepticism even after someone cites a book published by Random House and I hope it’s just that you have a strong bias against information by meme.

[Wiz Imp]

29. I've found a different source referenced.

Either way, I see no reason to question the veracity of the claim in general.

https://gehayi.tumblr.com/post/170390081086/in-1944-a-sixteen-year-old-black-student-in

The line is a slightly altered version of one from A Nation of Nations (1944) by Louis Adamic. Dan Shiffman quotes it in Rooting Multiculturalism: The Work of Louis Adamic:

“Perhaps Adamic’s most memorable reference [to the progress and ongoing exclusion African-Americans faced in WWII] comes early in the chapter and sets the tone for the rest of his discussion: ‘In the spring of 1944 a sixteen-year-old girl in Columbus, Ohio won a high school essay contest on “What to do with Hitler after the War” by writing a single sentence: “Put him in a black skin and let him live the rest of his life in America.”

But a significant point is that she won the contest.‘

So not only was the student black, but a black girl. Most of the re-quotes of Adamic omit that fact.

[IronLionZion]

38. Since that book is 1944 and the OP story says 1944

there's a good chance it actually happened considering the historical conditions at that time.

[Wiz Imp]

39. Agreed

[Lonestarblue]

37. If you have not read Wilkerson's Caste, it is well worth reading.

She also wrote The Warmth of Other Suns, a history of the migration of black people from the South. Hers’s the Amazon short description:

“In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson presents a definitive and dramatic account of one of the great untold stories of American history: the Great Migration of six million Black citizens who fled the South for the North and West in search of a better life, from World War I to 1970.”

[littlemissmartypants]

15. ...

[Iggo]

19. Ouch.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

27. Great idea

[multigraincracker]

30. As a young teen I read Black Like Me.

That was over 60 years ago and what I learned from it has stuck.

[sheshe2]

31. As did I.

The book and the movie.

[sop]

33. Required reading as a Freshman.

It was banned in Florida high schools by DeSantis and his band of book burners, probably in other states as well.

[multigraincracker]

35. He needs to live the story, not ban it.

[Rebl2]

34. Do that

with Steve Miller, the one who I believe is really ruining the country.
I meant to say running the country, not ruining. Actually, both words fit.

[tikka]

36. Do it to TSF's whole cabinet

[marble falls]

40. Mind blowing. That poor child.