From Victim to Victor to Victim Again

About the Book

This provocative publication is a culmination of several years of research, interviews and surveys to determine the extent of racism in Thailand. The initial study began in 1964, during the Viet Nam War, when the author was in Thailand serving as an Industrial Missionary. While there, he encountered racial bias on a personal level and decided to base his Master's thesis on a study of the degree of prejudice existing in this country.

"Prejudice not only hurts its holder and damages its victim, but also creates an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust which tends to destroy all who are touched by it. The question therefore arises, will the lesson of America's cities also be the lesson of Bangkok?"

Follow-up observations were completed 35 years later to determine whether or not any progress had been made since the first study, after which Thailand had experienced an unprecedented population growth and the absence of American military personnel.

"Thailand of the year 2000 was positioned to be the most appropriate prototype of the kind of inclusive society that many countries only dream of becoming..."

Between 2001 and 2002, another extensive effort, involving interviews and surveys, was initiated to measure the social distance between the Africans and Thais.

"...racial prejudice has a double edge. It damages both its holder and its victim. The prejudiced persons are hurt because they lose their ability for critical thought and react blindly in terms of stereotypes; they become less Christian, less Buddhist, less caring, and even less productive members of the Thai society, as far as creative thinking and change for the best goes. The victims of prejudice, are hurt because they become the persons created by the false image of themselves that is projected by those prejudiced persons."

The results and comparisons of the author's research are described in depth in the pages of this book, along with his professional analysis of the situation as it existed over the last 50 years and at the present time. In 2004, the author will return to Bangkok, Thailand to oversee a larger scientific study and the implementation of its findings.

About the Author

The life of Dr. Joseph O. Bass has been marked by great adversity, as well as extraordinary achievement. The unexplained death of his father, the subsequent loss of the family farm in Mississippi, the unwavering faith of his mother who worked tirelessly to raise her eight children and his deportment from Mississippi, all acquainted the author with the best and worst of the human spirit at an early age. Dr. Bass overcame ethnic and social barriers to become a successful pastor, industrial missionary and noted scholar of religion, ethics, history and sociology. This remarkable spiritual leader is the founder of the Alpha Baptist Church of Christ, the Alpha Complex - a minority Economic Development Enterprise, the Alpha International Academy of Excellence, The Alpha Community Outreach Program and the Alpha Ethical Society. He was the first African-American to become a member of the Rotary International Club in Thailand and the first African-American to have an audience with His Majesty, the King of Thailand. Because of Dr. Bass' unique role in effecting positive change in the Thai society, he was personally requested by the American Ambassador to deliver the message to the International Community at a special Memorial Service honoring the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The author's life experiences are described in vivid detail in his powerfully moving biographical work Without Vengeance published in 1999, 2002, 2003.