If, then, they are not there because we have not brought them into the world, we have been the guiltiest factor in conquering ourselves.
W.E.B. Du Bois: “If, then, they are not there because we have not brought them into the world, we have been the guiltiest factor in…”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois critiques the responsibility of the community in perpetuating its own struggles through inaction.
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But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.
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…
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.
Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.