Men call the shadow prejudice, and learnedly explain it as the natural defence of culture against barbarism, learning against ignorance, purity against crime, the “higher” against the “lower” races.
This passage outlines the common, often academic, justifications for racial prejudice, framing it as a defense of 'higher' against 'lower' races.
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More from W.E.B. Du Bois
A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom.
Fully ninety-four per cent have struggled for land and failed, and half of them sit in hopeless serfdom.
Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.
But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.