The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.
This powerful metaphor describes the pervasive and inescapable nature of racial oppression, likening it to a prison that affects all, but is particularly confining for Black individuals.
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