Through Afro-America: An English Reading of the Race Problem

Through Afro-America: An English Reading of the Race Problem

The problem of the twentieth century, says Mr. W. B. Du Bois, is the problem of the colour line. That, no doubt, is the view of a man born within the veil; but, whatever our point of view, we cannot but admit that racial adjustment is one of the two or three most urgent problems of the near future. Ought the colour-lines drawn by Nature to be enforced by human ordinance, and even by geographical segregation? Or ought they to be gradually obliterated by free intermingling and intermarriage? Or, while intermarriage is forbidden (whether by law or public sentiment), is it possible for people of different colours to dwell together in approximately equal numbers and on terms of democratic equality? Or is it for the benefit of both races that one race should always maintain, by social and political discriminations, its superiority over the other? Or is this opinion a mere hypocritical disguise of the instinct which begot, and maintained throughout the ages, the institution of slavery? These are questions which the coming century will have to answer, not only in America, but in xAfrica. It is in the Southern United States, however, that the problem presents itself in its acutest and most fully developed form. In South Africa it is looming ahead, in America it is present and hourly insistent. Though the conditions in the two countries can never be precisely similar, yet the experience of the one ought certainly to be of the utmost value in shaping the counsels of the other. My interest, then, in the colour-question in the South was not a mere abstract interest in an alien problem; nor was it due solely to the special sympathy for America and all things American which (I am happy to say) has been strong in me from my youth upward. It was a personal interest which ought, I think, to be shared by every Englishman who is so far an Imperialist as to feel that he cannot simply wash his hands of the problems of Empire. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 61726
Author: Archer, William
Release Date: Apr 1, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English