Other things being equal, all of us, black and white, would prefer to be beautiful in face and form and suitably clothed; but most of us are not so, and one of the mightiest revolts of the century is against the devilish decree that no woman is a woman who is not by present standards a beautiful woman.
Du Bois critiques societal standards of beauty that unfairly judge women, advocating for broader definitions of womanhood.
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It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.
He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world.
Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.
A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom.