On the recordJanuary 1, 1903
If you deplore their presence here, they ask, Who brought us?
Said by
W.E.B. Du Bois
Source
gutenberg.orgW.E.B. Du Bois: “If you deplore their presence here, they ask, Who brought us?”
Editor's note · Context
Du Bois presents a rhetorical question from Black Americans, challenging the hypocrisy of those who lament their presence while ignoring the history of forced migration.
Share
More from W.E.B. Du Bois
Jan 1, 1903
Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.
Jan 1, 1903
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.
Jan 1, 1903
Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.
Jan 1, 1903
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.