Twentieth Century Negro Literature / Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro

by Unknown

If theories alone could have solved this problem, long ere this would race friction have been removed; it would have been a question of the past, but unfortunately for the race, unfortunately for the people at large, many of those who knew least about the subject and who had no remedy for the troubles complained of—have had most to say and they have generally said it in the most reckless way, regardless of facts. Only now and then do we have a calm view of the situation with reasonable suggestions as to the best course to follow.

As we enter upon the twentieth century, it will be well for black and white to get together and understand one another and ascertain as far as possible what is best to do in the light of facts before us.

One thing is certain—the white man does not yet know the Negro. Strange as it may seem, the Northern white man does not know him after many years of close observation, neither does the Southern white man, for all the years gone by in which the Negro has lived in his midst. The observations of both in fact only leave the Negro largely an unknown quantity to either. I have claimed heretofore that there is a life that the white man knows nothing of. It is found in the hovel as well as in the cultured home, in the school and the church. It is a life in the bud-time of race pride and another race prejudice; and it is swelling to the blossoming. What will be the fruit?

To know the race one must do more than occasionally to visit it here and there, must see more than even a close examination of schools and churches, instructed, aided and supported by white philanthropy, will disclose. The toadying, the servile representatives of the race, the politicians, the dependent ones—all must be passed by and the people found. To know the Negro one must be with him and become a part of his life—see what he is doing, and above all, to know what he is thinking.

Go into the schools and churches where there is not a shadow of white influence to check freedom of speech or tinge thought and what do we see and hear? In every case we find those from the oldest to the youngest with some ideas upon the race question and ready to express them. Not so with white children. They are not thinking about the color of their skin or the texture of their hair or their rights and privileges or the deprivation of these rights, the contempt and ostracism following them everywhere; but the Negro child, on the other hand, of every shade of color has these almost constantly in mind, for they are thrust upon him. He can think of little else.

In such schools, in such communities, the field work, the social gathering, the literary society, the routine of school or church or community life, the platform—all are tinctured deeply with these ideas and these are expressed in some form on every possible occasion. All these questions are in a large degree to the race, as far as interest is concerned, at least, the momentous, the ever-present, ever-burning topic.

No youth of the white race feels the weight of any subject agitating the mind of the public as these colored youth feel this one. What is the omen, when boys and girls alike make it a common question, in some form or other for all their daily work? It has been said that the two races are growing apart, that there is as much race prejudice in the one as in the other. In many respects this is true, though the prejudice on the part of the Negro is a thing of natural growth from certain causes, not an inherent quality. The fact that the Negro is rising without anything like adequate recognition—at least other than a patronizing one—is one of these causes. As here and there the Negro comes, to the white man's higher level, among the best he is confronted with that "Ah-you-are-here." Ah, which means more than words can express and he straightway feels his pulses stirred to the defensive counter spirit of "I-am-and-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it?" The result is the two mutually draw back from each other.

Among the middle classes where the level of the whites intellectually and financially is more readily and more rapidly being reached by the greater number of Negroes there is still more prejudice to be found. It is here where the Negro has his fiercest battle ground; it is here where he finds his greatest opposition. It is only following out the idea of the French writer who said, "Mediocrity alone is jealous." The constant desire of this class of white people to rise to the highest level aggravates them upon seeing a Negro reaching out for or obtaining in any way that which they may have or may be seeking, and they "take it out" by greater assumption of superiority especially over those of the race who have reached their own plane of living, and here again is a creation of a counter prejudice.

Growing refinement brings with it to the Negro all that sensitiveness which is accorded to refined people wherever found, and naturally he recoils from rebuffs, insults, and contumely, and holds himself aloof more and more only as business demands contact. He has no growing reason to revere the whites as a mass, and if nations are proverbially ungrateful, what more can be expected of individuals, no matter how much fine theorizing there may be upon the subject of what the Negro owes to the white man.

With this increasing prejudice, for reasons named, there is a growing race pride. This is taking firm root among the young people of the Negro race who are being taught to respect those of their own number who have obtained honor and distinction through merit. The school-boy and school-girl are studying the history of their own race with eagerness. They are finding out that it is not an altogether degraded people from which they have sprung, and with the gathering evidences about them of education, refinement, even wealth, and high character, they see no good reason why they should be despised for mere color or the possession of some imperceptible drops of Negro blood, as in many cases. This is a laudable pride based upon both the past and present and, as we have said, they are more alive to all that pertains to race matters than any other set of young people whom we are able to mention.