Papers of the American Negro Academy. (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 18-19.)Grimké, Archibald Henry
History
Papers of the American Negro Academy. (The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers, No. 18-19.)
Grimké, Archibald Henry
African Americans -- Congresses
Now no such balance can be struck by the unaided acts of the men of the
lower race. Without the co-operation of the women of the upper race
these men are helpless to scale the high wall, or to make the slightest
breach in it. The law, public opinion, the men of the upper race, render
such co-operation very difficult, well-nigh impossible, did there exist
any disposition on the part of the women of the upper race to give aid
and comfort for such a purpose to the men of the lower race. But as a
matter of fact, and speaking broadly, there exists no such disposition.
The law of sexual selection does not operate under the circumstances to
make the men of the lower race sufficiently attractive to the women of
the upper race. It is possible that in a state of nature, and under
other circumstances, the case might be different. But under present
conditions the sexual gravitation of the women of the upper world toward
the men of the lower world may be set down as infinitesimally small,
practically a negligible quantity. Everything in the state, in society,
in deep-rooted racial prejudices, in the vastly inferior social and
economic standing of the lower race and the ineffaceable dishonor which
attaches to such unions in the public mind, together with the actual
peril to life which attends them, all combine to discourage, to destroy
almost any inclination in that direction on the part of the women of the
upper race.
Now, while this is true, speaking broadly, it is not altogether so. For
in scattered individual cases, in spite of the difficulties and dangers,
the law of sexual selection has been known to operate between those two
worlds. A few women of the upper world, on the right side of the high
wall have been drawn to a few men in the lower world, on the wrong side
of that wall. By the connivance, or co-operation of such women the men
of their choice have climbed into the upper world, climbed into it over
the high wall by means that were secret and ways that were dark. As one
swallow does not, however, make summer, neither can these scattered
instances, few and far between, be cited to establish any general
affinity between the women of the upper race and the men of the lower
race. On examination they will be seen to be exceptions, which only
prove the rule of a want of sexual affinity between them under existing
conditions at least. Practically a well-nigh impassable gulf, to change
the figure, separates the men of the lower world from the women of the
upper one. The men as a class can not bridge that gulf, and the women as
a class have no desire to do so. This, then, is the actual situation:
the men of the upper world enjoy practically exclusive possession of the
women of that world, while the men of the lower world do not enjoy
exclusive possession of the women of their world, but share this
possession with the men of the upper world.
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