And when, by
proscription and prejudice, these same Negroes are classed
with and treated like the lowest of their people, simply because
they are Negroes, such a policy not only discourages thrift
and intelligence among black men, but puts a direct premium
on the very things you complain of,--inefficiency and crime.
Draw lines of crime, of incompetency, of vice, as tightly and
uncompromisingly as you will, for these things must be
proscribed; but a color-line not only does not accomplish this
purpose, but thwarts it.
In the face of two such arguments, the future of the South
depends on the ability of the representatives of these opposing
views to see and appreciate and sympathize with each other's
position,--for the Negro to realize more deeply than he does
at present the need of uplifting the masses of his people, for
the white people to realize more vividly than they have yet
done the deadening and disastrous effect of a color-prejudice
that classes Phillis Wheatley and Sam Hose in the same
despised class.
It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color-
prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for
the white South to reply that their social condition is the main
cause of prejudice.
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