According to Snopes, he did in fact say this ... but it was to a young Bill Moyers in a hotel bar in Tennessee after they had seen some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs during a motorcade. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, LBJ started talking about those signs. “I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it,” he said. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” (as quoted by Moyers in an article published in the Washington Post 11/13/1988)
ReplyDeleteAccording to Snopes, he did in fact say this ... but it was to a young Bill Moyers in a hotel bar in Tennessee after they had seen some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs during a motorcade. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, LBJ started talking about those signs. “I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it,” he said. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
(as quoted by Moyers in an article published in the Washington Post 11/13/1988)
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,,,which lbj proceded to do
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