“The spider doesn’t happen to be an insect. It’s an arachnid. But, all right. What I’m saying—and you’ve been saying it, too!—is, it’s naïve, man, naïve to suppose that generations of tradition can be dissolved simply because somebody gives an order to that effect! But that isn’t the only trouble. No matter whether we’re responsible for it or not, it remains that the Negroes as they are today are definitely inferior to whites. Not potentially, no; but in actuality. In ratio, they’ve got more crime, more incest, more divorce, more disease, less morals and less intelligence. Period. Is this condition going to change automatically with the inception of integration? Is it?”

Tom had remained silent.

“Answer: No. Instead, since they can’t be expected to jump up to our standards all of a sudden, the standards will have to be lowered. Look at what happened in Washington, if you doubt it. Of course, that’s taking the happiest view. That’s assuming the most probable result won’t occur—I mean an outbreak of violence; the worst kind of violence we’ve known in the South since 1860!”

Wolfe had sucked on his pipe, looking both serious and intelligent. He is intelligent, Tom had thought.

And he had known, suddenly, that this was the face of the Enemy.

“I hesitate even to mention the significance of all this in terms of international relations,” Wolfe had continued. “The Communists have already made Jim Crow as well known as Uncle Sam. Better known, by God. Just with the situation we’ve had. But you just watch what happens when the fighting starts! They’ll have a damned field day! Ten to one that kid from the Hill, that Vaughan kid they had to expel—I’ll bet his name gets more publicity than Marilyn Monroe, all over the world. I’m telling you, Tom, American prestige is going straight to hell with this business. Every minor skirmish, every little incident . . . it’ll be the next best thing to another War Between the States. Every day another Emmet Till will bite the dust— And when the whole miserable thing explodes in our face, it’ll be heard in every corner of the earth! This is common sense. And you tell me—even for the sake of argument—that ‘maybe’ the decision was a good idea!”

Wolfe had removed his pipe and stared at Tom.

“Well,” he’d said, “do you care to challenge any of these points?”

And Tom, given no choice, had been forced to answer: “Yes.”

“By all means then,” his friend had said, stiffly courteous. “I’d be delighted to listen.”