Hither has the temptation of Hippomenes penetrated; already in this smaller world, which now indirectly and anon directly must influence the larger for good or ill, the habit is forming of interpreting the world in dollars.
Du Bois warns that the temptation of materialism is also influencing the Black community, leading to a focus on monetary value.
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More from W.E.B. Du Bois
So the Cotton Kingdom still lives; the world still bows beneath her sceptre.
One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.
The form and disposition of the laborers’ cabins throughout the Black Belt is to-day the same as in slavery days.
The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.