The Color Line: A Brief in Behalf of the UnbornSmith, William Benjamin
History
The Color Line: A Brief in Behalf of the Unborn
Smith, William Benjamin
African Americans
It may be well to indicate at the outset the general movement of
thought through this volume:
Chapter One in its title strikes the keynote. In the following pages
the main issue is stated, the position of the South is defined, and her
lines of defence are indicated. But there is no attempt to justify the
fundamental assumption in the Southern argument.
In Chapter Two this shortcoming is made good. The assumed inferiority
of both the Negro and the Negroid is argued at length, and proved by a
great variety of considerations.
In Chapter Three the notion that this inferiority, now demonstrated, is
after all merely cultural and removable by Education or other
extra-organic means, is considered minutely and refuted in every detail
and under all disguises.
In Chapter Four the powerful and authoritative plea of Dr. Boas, for
the "primitives," is subjected to a searching analysis, with the
decisive result that, in spite of himself, this eminent anthropologist,
while denying everything as a whole, affirms everything in detail that
is maintained in the preceding chapters. Inasmuch as the Address of
this savant may be regarded as the _ne plus ultra_ of pro-African
pleading, both in earnestness and in learning, it has seemed that no
treatment of the subject would be complete that did not refute it
thoroughly--"so fight I as one not beating the air." To do this was not
possible without quoting extensively, which is the less to be regretted
as the Address has been too little read.
In Chapter Five the obvious and instant question is met. What then is
to become of the Black Man? The answer is rendered in general terms and
is supported by the remarkable testimony of the distinguished
statistician, Professor Willcox. But only general sociologic moments
are regarded, and the statistical argument in detail is held in
reserve.
In Chapter Six this omission is fully supplied. The Growth rate, the
Birth rate, the Death rate, the Crime rate, and the Anthropometry of
the Negro are discussed minutely from every point of view, and the
positions of the preceding chapters are bulwarked and buttressed
unassailably.
It has been the one aim of the writer, who is perfectly convinced in
his own mind, to convince the reader. To this end no pains have been
spared and no drudgery avoided. Since it appeared necessary to regard
the matter from various nearly related points of view, under only
slightly divergent angles, it has happened that the same argumentative
materials have come to hand more than once in almost equivalent forms.
But in this there is no disadvantage; factors of such sovereign potence
do not suffer from repetition. The whole discussion is biological in
its bearing and turns about a few pivotal points; and these deserve to
be stressed by every device of emphasis. "For twice indeed, yea thrice,
they say, it is good to repeat and review the good."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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