African Americans; United States -- Race relations
In converse with Professor Hoffmann in New Orleans, a British subject
formerly in the service of the British Government in Northern Nigeria,
an extremely capable and enlightened Negro, now head master of a
colored school, I found confirmation of this. His impression of the
change of spirit in the empire was similar to that expressed by Du
Bois, and I found admiration of British rule giving way to doubt in
many Negro minds. Indeed it has been possible for American Anglophobes
to do a good deal of propaganda among the Negroes by representing
how badly the natives now fare under British rule. There is some
exaggeration in this respect, but it makes an important impression on
the mind of the American Negro. He has begun to feel a care and an
anxiety for the condition of his brethren overseas. The educated Negro
of the United States now feels a responsibility toward the African
Negro, and also toward all dark-skinned people whatsoever.
The assumption by the Negro of a common ground with the natives of
India is somewhat surprising and amusing. There is no ethnological
common ground. But the color bar of the British Empire applies almost
as stringently to the Indians as to the Negroes. “We’ll smash them all
to hell,” says a bellicose Negro stranger to a young Hindoo student
at Washington, much to the astonishment of the latter. The advanced
Negroes of America place the liberation of the peoples of India and
Egypt in the very foreground of their world policy. They say also that
the natives of South Africa must be delivered from the Union of South
Africa.
One thing is certain, and that is that the British Empire will not hold
together for long unless the Whites can manage the Blacks, and uphold
the standard of justice which was formerly lived by. Votes are not
necessary, but ordinary human rights of free existence and opportunity
are necessary. The empire is at the crossroads. It is a question
whether it can be held together by good will, or whether Britain
will be forced to inaugurate a rule of force and obedience. The old
conception of good will is being tested in South Africa and Egypt and
India as it is in Ireland. Possibly as a result of the war, political
circumstances may force it back to the ideal of force and a paramount
central authority. The belief of native races in the King, and their
hatred of the King’s intermediaries, is characteristic of the time. The
American Negro is keeping a sharp lookout on the lot of colored people
within the British Empire. As he leads in intelligence, in ideals, and
in material wealth, he intends to missionarize the native world in the
name of civilization. The missionaries are called agitators; their
press seditious; their ideals dangerous; but words do not alter the
fact that the flag of Pan-African unity has been raised, and the common
needs of all dark-skinned races have been mooted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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