Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations

by Thomas L. Friedman

For foreign students from Africa, India, or Indonesia, newly independent countries, this kind of racism, that a neighbor would call the cops because they saw a black man enter a house, was a bit of a shock, said Annan. “For a young Ghanaian, whose country was just a few years out of independence and [was] so proud of his country, it takes you a while to register and understand. We all came from cultures where we were the majority, where we never had this experience. When I sometimes hear societies say, ‘We have no discrimination’—I am sure they don’t, until they have someone to discriminate against.” Because of that, said Annan, “You have to respect the courage of the individual who stands up against it, and they go up in your esteem and the bond and friendship strengthens, and that is how I felt about Susan and her family. It is incredible because somebody else would have reacted differently”—and some certainly did.