How did you first discover the quality of “human dignity” that is so central to your life and the story in this book?

Gerald A. Archambeau: My early family life was provided by my grandmother who was head of the Thomas family home in Jamaica after my grandfather died. This home was a loving start for me, where I saw and felt the dignity of being human. But it also had its flaws when it came to my mother falling in love with a man of very dark complexion from Panama and then moving to Montreal. The rejection of human beings because of skin colour became a sadness and source of anger for me through my life.

Seeking to retain your human dignity against those who denied it you developed a full repertoire of responses, including your swift arm and hard fist. Did being your own enforcer help?

Archambeau: Not having a mother and father around me from a very young age gave me a feeling of insecurity, even with the love I got from my aunts and the helpers they hired for my care. This caused me to react aggressively at times if asked, “Where are your real parents?” or if bullied by white boys in Montreal. Some people only learn to respect others the hard way, but they learn.

 Your critics feel your interpretation of the larger picture is too positive. How do you account for your optimistic realism?

Archambeau: My optimistic attitudes with regard to race and decent human behaviour come from my grandmother’s ground rules in the family home that she maintained as a devout Catholic by following the basic Christian ethic of “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

 Several human rights commissions have recently become controversial for how they perform their role. In this book you describe college graduates making a career for themselves in human rights agencies. Have issues of discrimination and human dignity been abstracted into an administrative process?

Archambeau: Having to deal with some human rights commissions in my struggle to preserve my dignity in the work place made me realize that certain people were only looking to make points to further their careers rather than solving the problems brought to their attention.

 You travelled as a railway porter with famous people from hockey legend Rocket Richard to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker during the golden age of railroading in North -America. How did such experiences contribute to your struggle to be respected as a person?

Archambeau: I was always impressed by people who were successful at what they did, mainly because of their discipline in order to achieve their goals. This made me become very pragmatic when thinking about what I wanted to achieve in life.

 You weave the story of your family into patterns that run through generations to emphasize the theme of personal courage. Why is this?

Archambeau: Having heard so many stories about my grandfather who was a white Jamaican police inspector in British colonial Jamaica, I became fascinated with the fact he was still human enough to fall desperately in love with my black grandmother and stay with her to the end of his life. It showed me that he had more human courage than his peers of that time by crossing the racial divide, which was very real, to follow his heart for love.