"Look back, to slavery, to suffrage, to integration and one thing is clear. Fashions in bigotry come and go. The right thing lasts"
About this Quote
Quindlen frames moral progress as something sturdier than the periodic flare-ups of reaction, and she does it with the brisk confidence of a columnist who knows history is both evidence and weapon. The line “Look back” is a command, not a suggestion: she’s pushing the reader out of the churn of daily outrage and into a longer view where today’s “common sense” looks embarrassingly temporary.
The sharp trick is calling bigotry a “fashion.” That word usually belongs to hemlines and pop trends, not cruelty. By yoking prejudice to consumer-like cycles, she strips it of the dignity it often claims for itself (tradition, order, nature) and exposes it as performative and socially contagious. Bigotry, in this framing, isn’t inevitable; it’s a style people adopt, signal, and later deny they ever wore.
Her choice of historical markers matters: slavery, suffrage, integration. Each was once defended as normal, even righteous; each eventually became a moral tell for how a society talks itself into injustice. Quindlen’s subtext is a warning to the present: if you can recognize yesterday’s rationalizations as grotesque, you should be suspicious of today’s.
“The right thing lasts” lands because it’s both reassurance and pressure. It comforts readers who feel history bending their way, but it also implies a ledger: time will sort the arguments, and it won’t be kind to the ones dressed up as “just how things are.” As journalism, it’s persuasion by timeline: don’t bet on the trend; bet on the durable.
The sharp trick is calling bigotry a “fashion.” That word usually belongs to hemlines and pop trends, not cruelty. By yoking prejudice to consumer-like cycles, she strips it of the dignity it often claims for itself (tradition, order, nature) and exposes it as performative and socially contagious. Bigotry, in this framing, isn’t inevitable; it’s a style people adopt, signal, and later deny they ever wore.
Her choice of historical markers matters: slavery, suffrage, integration. Each was once defended as normal, even righteous; each eventually became a moral tell for how a society talks itself into injustice. Quindlen’s subtext is a warning to the present: if you can recognize yesterday’s rationalizations as grotesque, you should be suspicious of today’s.
“The right thing lasts” lands because it’s both reassurance and pressure. It comforts readers who feel history bending their way, but it also implies a ledger: time will sort the arguments, and it won’t be kind to the ones dressed up as “just how things are.” As journalism, it’s persuasion by timeline: don’t bet on the trend; bet on the durable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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