And herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor,—all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked,—who is good? not that men are ignorant,—what is Truth?
Du Bois introduces his profound definition of the era's tragedy, distinguishing it from common human struggles like poverty, wickedness, or ignorance.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.
The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.
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.
To him, so far as he thought and dreamed, slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice; Emancipation was the key to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before the eyes…