A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its own social problems.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and…”
Editor's note · Context
This passage argues that a historically disadvantaged people should be granted the space and resources to address their internal social problems rather than being forced into immediate competition.
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Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.
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?
Hear my cry, O God the Reader; vouchsafe that this my book fall not still-born into the world wilderness.
The silently growing assumption of this age is that the probation of races is past, and that the backward races of to-day are of proven inefficiency and not worth the saving.