Very gradually,--I cannot now distinguish the steps, though here and there I remember a jump or a jolt--but very gradually I found myself assuming quite placidly that I was different from other children.
Du Bois describes his gradual realization of his difference from other children, highlighting the impact of race on identity.
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More from W.E.B. Du Bois
But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.
So long as the world stands meekly dumb before such questions, shall this nation proclaim its ignorance and unhallowed prejudices by denying freedom of opportunity to those who brought the Sorrow Songs to the Seats of the Mighty?
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.