Above all, they cannot see why they should take unusual pains to make the white man’s land better, or to fatten his mule, or save his corn.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “Above all, they cannot see why they should take unusual pains to make the white man’s land better, or to fatten his…”
Editor's note · Context
This statement powerfully articulates the lack of incentive for Black laborers to invest extra effort into improving property that is not their own, highlighting the impact of systemic exploitation.
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More from W.E.B. Du Bois
So long as the world stands meekly dumb before such questions, shall this nation proclaim its ignorance and unhallowed prejudices by denying freedom of opportunity to those who brought the Sorrow Songs to the Seats of the Mighty?
If somewhere in this whirl and chaos of things there dwells Eternal Good, pitiful yet masterful, then anon in His good time America shall rend the Veil and the prisoned shall go free.
Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.
Let the ears of a guilty people tingle with truth, and seventy millions sigh for the righteousness which exalteth nations, in this drear day when human brotherhood is mockery and a snare.