But alas! while sociologists gleefully count his bastards and his prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling, sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “But alas! while sociologists gleefully count his bastards and his prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling, sweating…”
Editor's note · Context
This passage critiques the detached and judgmental approach of some sociologists, contrasting it with the profound despair experienced by Black men.
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In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.