The Popular Science Monthly, June, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900Various
Science
The Popular Science Monthly, June, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
It will be observed that the suggestions I have made concerning the
immediate needs of the negro do not include any mention of the higher
scholastic education. This is not because I disbelieve in such training
for those blacks who, by their evident capacity, show that it fits
them; but because it seems futile at the present time to waste efforts
in giving these people an education for which they are in general by
no means ready--which, if attained, does not afford them a way to a
suitable station. The few youths of the race who really desire what is
commonly called a college education, are reasonably certain to receive
it in some one of the many schools where they are sure of a welcome and
of all due help. Even in the case of those blacks who, by some rare
chance, have inherited the proper foundations of the higher mental
training, and are made ready for the so-called professions, I see but a
very poor chance of advancement to any fit positions in this country.
Even in the part of the North where one would expect these well-trained
negroes would have a fair chance in life, it does not avail them. As
physicians, lawyers, clergymen or engineers they can look forward to
no future having a definite relation to their capacities. They can not
expect to have any range of social opportunities, and their employment
will have to be essentially with their own people.
The youth of negro blood might naturally expect to find in a community
devoted to the maintenance of his rights at least a welcome to the
external business society. He will, however, find that the people who
would willingly sacrifice much to ensure him an equal place in matters
political, allow their race prejudices or those of their associates to
deny him fair play. It is a lamentable fact that this dislike to these
men of the other aspect is far stronger in the North than in the South.
In the parts of the North where negroes are rare, there is, it is true,
a sense of duty by them that ensures their place before the law; but
not enough personal contact with them to wear away the first offence of
their diverse aspect. In most parts of the Southern States the black
man is so constantly in view that the instinctive prejudice is worn
away--he is perhaps, in a somewhat contemptuous way, personally liked.
The race prejudice takes the form of certain rules of intercourse,
expressing about the feeling that separates the commissioned officers
and the enlisted men of an army. There is an element of truth in the
statement, attributed to Thomas Carlyle, that the Northern man said,
“God d--d you, Sambo, be free;” and the Southerner, “God bless you,
Sambo, be slave.” The result to Sambo is the same--a deprivation of
opportunities in all the higher walks of life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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