Idle to say it never should have been; it was as inevitable as its results were pitiable.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “Idle to say it never should have been; it was as inevitable as its results were pitiable.”
Editor's note · Context
Reflecting on the growing racial divide in the post-Civil War South, Du Bois argues that this schism was an unavoidable outcome of historical forces, despite its tragic consequences.
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So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of “swift” and “slow” in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.
But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.
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.