In all human associations there are some ties that bind-they are in the blood-that no amount of succeeding prejudice or growing chasms of reversed conditions, or upheavals of social controversy, or man's inhumanity to man can sever. Such a tie, if we look for it, we still find underneath all the hubbub and rubbish of late years' degeneracy of both whites and blacks in the South. It is often asserted that this lofty sentiment, so strongly rooted in the hearts of the true southern gentleman, expresses only his appreciation of the faithfulness of the Negro as a servant; but that it is not meant to convey any thought of equality. This is undoubtedly true in most cases, but where this good will is exercised between the races, there can be but a short step left to a final social understanding. Many men and women, North and South, who have the kindest feeling toward the Negro, dare not express their sympathy for fear of public ridicule and social ostracism. They are justly branded as moral cowards; but the Negro who believes that all white men are his enemies, and are trying to "keep the Negro in his place," is not only a coward, but a breeder of dissension and an enemy of his race as well. WHAT CAN BE THE FIRST CAUSE OF THE IMPENDING SOCIAL ERUPTION? What can be at the bottom of or the first cause of the present impending social eruption between the races? This question is often asked. The Negro illiterate is a silent figure and a harmless one, so far as he has not been inoculated with the poison of dissension by the pernicious agitator. There are Vardamans and Tillmans in the Negro race as well as in the white race; men who do more harm than good. We believe in healthy agitation, and encourage it everywhere; but we condemn a spirit of hatred and prejudice wherever we meet it. Now the facts we have before us are these: The enlightened Negro has education and intelligence enough to know right from wrong, and that he ought to condemn the wrong and uphold the right in both races. The white man has long and faithfully fought the battles of the Negro. He has spilt his blood and generously sacrificed his life for him; he has spent millions upon millions of his money to educate him and better his conditions; he has not even hesitated to enter the jungles of his native haunts to bring light and the gospel of truth to the dark continent. The best brain and the greatest minds of the white race in America are even today championing the cause of the Negro. Should not the Afro-American turn about and stop the boastful spirit of bragism-of what he has done since his emancipation-and give credit to the faithful men and women of the white race who have assisted him, and without whom he could have done but little under prevailing conditions worthy of his great race? We contend that the Negro has not done more than he ought to have done; and today he is not doing half as much as he ought to do in the way of bettering his conditions. Again, in connection with this thought, we have the fact that nearly all the people of mixed blood are leaders of the race, and that this relationship which exists between the races ought to be a means of cementing them instead of separating them. This process of cementing, if it may be called that, is going on at a tremendous rate in many parts of the country, as we prove elsewhere. So it cannot be that racial hatred on the part of the colored man, exists because of ignorance or paternal relationship. The first cause must be traced elsewhere. It lies not in the lack of intelligence or education, or in the lack of blood admixture; but in the mental habit of finding the flaws and shortcomings of the white man. Naturally imaginative in his make-up, he often pictures to himself, and argues the point with others, that all men with white faces are his enemies. And it is curious, sometimes his own face is nearly as white as his father's! |