Human advancement is not a mere question of almsgiving, but rather of sympathy and cooperation among classes who would scorn charity.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “Human advancement is not a mere question of almsgiving, but rather of sympathy and cooperation among classes who would…”
Editor's note · Context
From his seminal work, this statement critiques superficial solutions to social inequality and advocates for deeper societal change.
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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.
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?
Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.
Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to…