world are for democracy." Anything less than this will fail to establish "peace on earth and good will toward meil." For the majority races cannot be eternally coerced into accepting the sovereignity of the white race. They are willing to live in a world which is the equal possession of all peoples----white, black, brown and yellow. If the white race is willing. they will live at peace with it. But if it insists that freedom, democracy and equality are to exist only for white men, then, there will be such bloodshed later as this world has never seen. And there is no certainty that in such a conflict the white race will come out on top. Not the destinies of the world, but the destinies of the white race are in the hands of the whtic race.-1917, U-Need-a Biscuit. There is one advertisement which appears in the magazines, on the streets and bill boards which has always weremed to us a masterly illustration of the principle of repetition. When going to work in the morning we look up from our daily newspaper and see the Anring sign which states that li-need-a Biscuit, we may ignore its appeal the first time, but as the days go buy the onstant insistence reaches our inner consciousness and we decide that perhaps after all we do need a biscuit. At any rate, whenever we have biscuits to bury it is natural that the biscuit which has lucent inost persistently advertised should retur. at once to our minds and that we should buy that particular biscuit. We beg to call the above apologise to the attention of the white people of this country who guide the ship of state either in the halls of Congress or through the colunms of the white newspapers. They are seemingly at a loss to account for the new spirit which has come over the Negro people in the Western world. Some pretend 10 believe that it is Bolshevism-whatever that may be. Others tell us that it is the prodluct of alien agitators, and yet others are coming to the front with the novel cxplanation that it springs from a desire to mingle our blood with that of the white people. l'erhaps we are wasting our time in offering an explanation to the white nien of this country. It has been proven again and again that the Anglo-Saxon is such a professional liar that with the plain truth before his eyes he will still profess to lve sccing something else. Nevertheless we make the attempt because we believe that a double benefit may accruic 10 us iherehy. Does any reader who lived through the years from 1914 10 1919 and is still living remember what “Democracy" was? It was the U-1iccol-a Biscuit advertised by Messrs. Woodrow Wilson. Lloyd George, Georges Clemenccau and thousands of per. spiring publicists, preachers and thinkers, who were on one side of a conflict then raging in Europe. Now, you cannot get men to go out and get killed lry telling them plainly that you who are sending them want to get the other fellow's land, trade and wealth, and you are too cowardly or too intelligent to go yourself and risk getting shot over the acquisition. That would never do. So you whoop it up with any catchword which will serve as sufficient bait for the silly fools whom you keep silly in order that you may alwnys use them in this way. "Democracy" was such a catch-word, nnd the honorable gentlemen to whom we referred alsove advertised it for all it was worth to them. But, just as we prophesied in 1915, there was an unavoidable Aarc-hack. When you advertisc U-necd-n Biscuit incessantly people will want it; and when you advertise democracy incessantly the people to whom you trumpet forth its deliciousness are likcly to believe you, take you at your word, and, later on, demand that you make good and furnislı them with the article for which you yourself have created the appetite. Now, we Negroes, ligyptians and Hindus, under the pressure of democracy's commercial drunmers, havc dcvelopeil a democratic complex which in its turbulent insistence is apt to trouble the firms for whom these drummers drunimed: Because they liaven't any of the goods which they advertised in the first place, and, in the second place, they haven't the slightest intention of passing any of it on even if they had. So, gentlemeni, when you read of the Mullals, or Said Zagloul lasha and Mircus Ciarvey or Casely Hayforel; when you hear of ligyptinn an Indian nationalist 11prisings, of Black Star Lines and West Indian "seditions" kindly remenıber (because we know) that these fruits spring from the scoils of your own sowing. You have said 10:11s "U need it biscuit," and, after long listening to you, we have replied, "We do!" Perhaps next time---if there is a next time--you will think twice before you furnish to "inferior" peoples such a stick as "democracy" has proved for the bluegconing of your heads. In any case your work has been too well done for even you 10 oblitcrate it. The Negro of the Western world can truthfully say to the white man and the Anglo-Saxon in particular, "You made me what I am today, I hope you're satisfieel.” And if the white man isn't satisfied--well, we should worry. That's all.— July, 1920. Our Larger Duty. The problems of the twentieth century is the problemi of the Color Line.! But what is the Color Line? It is the practice of the theory that the colored and "weaker" races of the carth shall not lic free to follow "their own way of life and of allegiance," Init shall live, work and be gove crned after such fashion as the dominant white race may decide. Consider for a moment the full meaning of this fact. Of the scventeen hundred million people that riwell on our carth today more than twelve hundred million are colored--black and brown and yellow. The so-called white race is, of course, the superior race. That is to say, it is on top by virtuc of its control of the physical force of the worldships, guns, solliers, money and other resources. By virtue of this controllingland rules and robus Inulin, ligypt, Afrien nnd the West Indies; hy virtise of this control we of the United States can tell llaytians, llawaiians and Filipinos how much they shall get for llicir Inbor nine what shall be done in their lands; hy vira flic of this control Belgium can still say to the Congolesc whether they shall have their hands hacked off or their cyes gouged out-and all without any reference to what Africans, Asiatics or other infcrior members of the world's majority may want. It is thus clear that, as long as the Color Linc exists, all the perfumed protestations of Democracyon the part of the white race must be simply downright lying. 'llic cant of "Democracy" is intender as dust in the eyes of white voters, incense on the altar of their own self-love. It furnishes bait for the clever statesmen who hold the destinies of their people in their hands when they go fishing for suckers in the waters of public discussion. But it becomes more and more apparent that Hindus, Egyptianis, Africans, Chinese and Haytians have taken the measure of this cant and hypocrisy. And, whatever the white world may think, it will have these peoples to deal with during this twentieth century. In dcaling with them in the past it has been considered sullicient that the white man should listen to his own voice alone in determining what colored peoples should have; and he has, therefore, heen trying perpetually to "solve" the problems arising from his own assumption of the role of God. The first and still the simplest method was to kill them off, either by slaughter pure and simple, ils in the case of the American Indians and the Congo natives, or by forcibly changing their mode of lise, as was done by those pious prudes who killed off the Tasmanians; or by importing among them rum, gin, whiskey and consumption, it has been attempted in the case of the Negroes of Africa and North America. But, unlike the red Indians and Tasmanians, most of these subject peoples have refused to be killed off. Their vitality is to strong. The second method divides itself into internal and external treatment. The internal treatment consists in making them work, to develop the resources of their ancestral lands, not for themselves, but for their wliite overlords, so that the national and imperial coffers may be filled to overflowing, while the Hindu ryot, on six cents a day, lives down to the level of the imperialist formula: "The poor benighted Hindoo, He never aches For chops and steaks And for clothes he makes lois skin do." Thie external treatment consists of girdling them withi forts and battleships and holling armics in readiness to fly at their throats upon the least sign of "uppishness" or "impudcnce." Now, this similarity of suffering on the part of colored folk has given, and is giving, rise to a certain similarity . |
