{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_31254/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_31254","id":"gutenberg_31254","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31254","summary":null,"tags":["African American Writers","African Americans -- Race identity","African Americans -- Social conditions","Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Sociology","United States -- Race relations"],"text":"Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  The American Negro Academy\n\n  Occasional Papers, No. 2.\n\n\n  The Conservation of Races.\n\n  BY\n  W. E. BURGHARDT Du BOIS.\n\n\n  WASHINGTON, D. C.\n  Published by the Academy.\n  1897.\n\n\n\n  Baptist Magazine Print,\n  Washington, D. C.\n\n  Orders may be sent to John H. Wills.\n  The Boston Cheap Book Store,\n  Washington, D. C.\n\n\n\n\nAnnouncement\n\n\nThe American Negro Academy believes that upon those of the race who have\nhad the advantages of higher education and culture, rests the\nresponsibility of taking concerted steps for the employment of these\nagencies to uplift the race to higher planes of thought and action.\n\nTwo great obstacles to this consummation are apparent: (_a_) The lack of\nunity, want of harmony, absence of a self-sacrificing spirit, and no\nwell-defined line of policy seeking definite aims; and (_b_) The\npersistent, relentless, at times covert opposition employed to thwart\nthe Negro at every step of his upward struggles to establish the\njustness of his claim to the highest physical, intellectual and moral\npossibilities.\n\nThe Academy will, therefore, from time to time, publish such papers as\nin their judgment aid, by their broad and scholarly treatment of the\ntopics discussed the dissemination of principles tending to the growth\nand development of the Negro along right lines, and the vindication of\nthat race against vicious assaults.\n\n\n\n\nTHE CONSERVATION OF RACES.\n\n\nThe American Negro has always felt an intense personal interest in\ndiscussions as to the origins and destinies of races: primarily because\nback of most discussions of race with which he is familiar, have lurked\ncertain assumptions as to his natural abilities, as to his political,\nintellectual and moral status, which he felt were wrong. He has,\nconsequently, been led to deprecate and minimize race distinctions, to\nbelieve intensely that out of one blood God created all nations, and to\nspeak of human brotherhood as though it were the possibility of an\nalready dawning to-morrow.\n\nNevertheless, in our calmer moments we must acknowledge that human\nbeings are divided into races; that in this country the two most extreme\ntypes of the world's races have met, and the resulting problem as to the\nfuture relations of these types is not only of intense and living\ninterest to us, but forms an epoch in the history of mankind.\n\nIt is necessary, therefore, in planning our movements, in guiding our\nfuture development, that at times we rise above the pressing, but\nsmaller questions of separate schools and cars, wage-discrimination and\nlynch law, to survey the whole question of race in human philosophy and\nto lay, on a basis of broad knowledge and careful insight, those large\nlines of policy and higher ideals which may form our guiding lines and\nboundaries in the practical difficulties of every day. For it is certain\nthat all human striving must recognize the hard limits of natural law,\nand that any striving, no matter how intense and earnest, which is\nagainst the constitution of the world, is vain. The question, then,\nwhich we must seriously consider is this: What is the real meaning of\nRace; what has, in the past, been the law of race development, and what\nlessons has the past history of race development to teach the rising\nNegro people?\n\nWhen we thus come to inquire into the essential difference of races we\nfind it hard to come at once to any definite conclusion. Many criteria\nof race differences have in the past been proposed, as color, hair,\ncranial measurements and language. And manifestly, in each of these\nrespects, human beings differ widely. They vary in color, for instance,\nfrom the marble-like pallor of the Scandinavian to the rich, dark brown\nof the Zulu, passing by the creamy Slav, the yellow Chinese, the light\nbrown Sicilian and the brown Egyptian. Men vary, too, in the texture of\nhair from the obstinately straight hair of the Chinese to the\nobstinately tufted and frizzled hair of the Bushman. In measurement of\nheads, again, men vary; from the broad-headed Tartar to the\nmedium-headed European and the narrow-headed Hottentot; or, again in\nlanguage, from the highly-inflected Roman tongue to the monosyllabic\nChinese. All these physical characteristics are patent enough, and if\nthey agreed with each other it would be very easy to classify mankind.\nUnfortunately for scientists, however, these criteria of race are most\nexasperatingly intermingled. Color does not agree with texture of hair,\nfor many of the dark races have straight hair; nor does color agree with\nthe breadth of the head, for the yellow Tartar has a broader head than\nthe German; nor, again, has the science of language as yet succeeded in\nclearing up the relative authority of these various and contradictory\ncriteria. The final word of science, so far, is that we have at least\ntwo, perhaps three, great families of human beings--the whites and\nNegroes, possibly the yellow race. That other races have arisen from the\nintermingling of the blood of these two. This broad division of the\nworld's races which men like Huxley and Raetzel have introduced as more\nnearly true than the old five-race scheme of Blumenbach, is nothing more\nthan an acknowledgment that, so far as purely physical characteristics\nare concerned, the differences between men do not explain all the\ndifferences of their history. It declares, as Darwin himself said, that\ngreat as is the physical unlikeness of the various races of men their\nlikenesses are greater, and upon this rests the whole scientific\ndoctrine of Human Brotherhood.\n\nAlthough the wonderful developments of human history teach that the\ngrosser physical differences of color, hair and bone go but a short way\ntoward explaining the different roles which groups of men have played\nin Human Progress, yet there are differences--subtle, delicate and\nelusive, though they may be--which have silently but definitely\nseparated men into groups. While these subtle forces have generally\nfollowed the natural cleavage of common blood, descent and physical\npeculiarities, they have at other times swept across and ignored these.\nAt all times, however, they have divided human beings into races, which,\nwhile they perhaps transcend scientific definition, nevertheless, are\nclearly defined to the eye of the Historian and Sociologist.\n\nIf this be true, then the history of the world is the history, not of\nindividuals, but of groups, not of nations, but of races, and he who\nignores or seeks to override the race idea in human history ignores and\noverrides the central thought of all history. What, then, is a race? It\nis a vast family of human beings, generally of common blood and\nlanguage, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are\nboth voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the\naccomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life.\n\nTurning to real history, there can be no doubt, first, as to the\nwidespread, nay, universal, prevalence of the race idea, the race\nspirit, the race ideal, and as to its efficiency as the vastest and most\ningenious invention for human progress. We, who have been reared and\ntrained under the individualistic philosophy of the Declaration of\nIndependence and the laisser-faire philosophy of Adam Smith, are loath\nto see and loath to acknowledge this patent fact of human history. We\nsee the Pharaohs, Caesars, Toussaints and Napoleons of history and\nforget the vast races of which they were but epitomized expressions. We\nare apt to think in our American impatience, that while it may have been\ntrue in the past that closed race groups made history, that here in\nconglomerate America _nous avons changer tout cela_--we have changed all\nthat, and have no need of this ancient instrument of progress. This\nassumption of which the Negro people are especially fond, can not be\nestablished by a careful consideration of history.\n\nWe find upon the world's stage today eight distinctly differentiated\nraces, in the sense in which History tells us the word must be used.\nThey are, the Slavs of eastern Europe, the Teutons of middle Europe, the\nEnglish of Great Britain and America, the Romance nations of Southern\nand Western Europe, the Negroes of Africa and America, the Semitic\npeople of Western Asia and Northern Africa, the Hindoos of Central Asia\nand the Mongolians of Eastern Asia. There are, of course, other minor\nrace groups, as the American Indians, the Esquimaux and the South Sea\nIslanders; these larger races, too, are far from homogeneous; the Slav\nincludes the Czech, the Magyar, the Pole and the Russian; the Teuton\nincludes the German, the Scandinavian and the Dutch; the English include\nthe Scotch, the Irish and the conglomerate American. Under Romance\nnations the widely-differing Frenchman, Italian, Sicilian and Spaniard\nare comprehended. The term Negro is, perhaps, the most indefinite of\nall, combining the Mulattoes and Zamboes of America and the Egyptians,\nBantus and Bushmen of Africa. Among the Hindoos are traces of widely\ndiffering nations, while the great Chinese, Tartar, Corean and Japanese\nfamilies fall under the one designation--Mongolian.\n\nThe question now is: What is the real distinction between these nations?\nIs it the physical differences of blood, color and cranial measurements?\nCertainly we must all acknowledge that physical differences play a great\npart, and that, with wide exceptions and qualifications, these eight\ngreat races of to-day follow the cleavage of physical race distinctions;\nthe English and Teuton represent the white variety of mankind; the\nMongolian, the yellow; the Negroes, the black. Between these are many\ncrosses and mixtures, where Mongolian and Teuton have blended into the\nSlav, and other mixtures have produced the Romance nations and the\nSemites. But while race differences have followed mainly physical race\nlines, yet no mere physical distinctions would really define or explain\nthe deeper differences--the cohesiveness and continuity of these groups.\nThe deeper differences are spiritual, psychical, differences--undoubtedly\nbased on the physical, but infinitely transcending them. The forces that\nbind together the Teuton nations are, then, first, their race identity\nand common blood; secondly, and more important, a common history, common\nlaws and religion, similar habits of thought and a conscious striving\ntogether for certain ideals of life. The whole process which has brought\nabout these race differentiations has been a growth, and the great\ncharacteristic of this growth has been the differentiation of spiritual\nand mental differences between great races of mankind and the\nintegration of physical differences.\n\nThe age of nomadic tribes of closely related individuals represents the\nmaximum of physical differences. They were practically vast families,\nand there were as many groups as families. As the families came together\nto form cities the physical differences lessened, purity of blood was\nreplaced by the requirement of domicile, and all who lived within the\ncity bounds became gradually to be regarded as members of the group;\n_i. e._, there was a slight and slow breaking down of physical barriers.\nThis, however, was accompanied by an increase of the spiritual and\nsocial differences between cities. This city became husbandmen, this,\nmerchants, another warriors, and so on. The _ideals of life_ for which\nthe different cities struggled were different. When at last cities began\nto coalesce into nations there was another breaking down of barriers\nwhich separated groups of men. The larger and broader differences of\ncolor, hair and physical proportions were not by any means ignored, but\nmyriads of minor differences disappeared, and the sociological and\nhistorical races of men began to approximate the present division of\nraces as indicated by physical researches. At the same time the\nspiritual and physical differences of race groups which constituted the\nnations became deep and decisive. The English nation stood for\nconstitutional liberty and commercial freedom; the German nation for\nscience and philosophy; the Romance nations stood for literature and\nart, and the other race groups are striving, each in its own way, to\ndevelope for civilization its particular message, its particular ideal,\nwhich shall help to guide the world nearer and nearer that perfection of\nhuman life for which we all long, that\n\n  \"one far off Divine event.\"\n\nThis has been the function of race differences up to the present time.\nWhat shall be its function in the future? Manifestly some of the great\nraces of today--particularly the Negro race--have not as yet given to\ncivilization the full spiritual message which they are capable of\ngiving. I will not say that the Negro race has as yet given no message\nto the world, for it is still a mooted question among scientists as to\njust how far Egyptian civilization was Negro in its origin; if it was\nnot wholly Negro, it was certainly very closely allied. Be that as it\nmay, however the fact still remains that the full, complete Negro\nmessage of the whole Negro race has not as yet been given to the world:\nthat the messages and ideal of the yellow race have not been completed,\nand that the striving of the mighty Slavs has but begun. The question\nis, then: How shall this message be delivered; how shall these various\nideals be realized? The answer is plain: By the development of these\nrace groups, not as individuals, but as races. For the development of\nJapanese genius, Japanese literature and art, Japanese spirit, only\nJapanese, bound and welded together, Japanese inspired by one vast\nideal, can work out in its fullness the wonderful message which Japan\nhas for the nations of the earth. For the development of Negro genius,\nof Negro literature and art, of Negro spirit, only Negroes bound and\nwelded together, Negroes inspired by one vast ideal, can work out in its\nfullness the great message we have for humanity. We cannot reverse\nhistory; we are subject to the same natural laws as other races, and if\nthe Negro is ever to be a factor in the world's history--if among the\ngaily-colored banners that deck the broad ramparts of civilization is to\nhang one uncompromising black, then it must be placed there by black\nhands, fashioned by black heads and hallowed by the travail of\n200,000,000 black hearts beating in one glad song of jubilee.\n\nFor this reason, the advance guard of the Negro people--the 8,000,000\npeople of Negro blood in the United States of America--must soon come to\nrealize that if they are to take their just place in the van of\nPan-Negroism, then their destiny is _not_ absorption by the white\nAmericans. That if in America it is to be proven for the first time in\nthe modern world that not only Negroes are capable of evolving\nindividual men like Toussaint, the Saviour, but are a nation stored with\nwonderful possibilities of culture, then their destiny is not a servile\nimitation of Anglo-Saxon culture, but a stalwart originality which shall\nunswervingly follow Negro ideals.\n\nIt may, however, be objected here that the situation of our race in\nAmerica renders this attitude impossible; that our sole hope of\nsalvation lies in our being able to lose our race identity in the\ncommingled blood of the nation; and that any other course would merely\nincrease the friction of races which we call race prejudice, and against\nwhich we have so long and so earnestly fought.\n\nHere, then, is the dilemma, and it is a puzzling one, I admit. No Negro\nwho has given earnest thought to the situation of his people in America\nhas failed, at some time in life, to find himself at these cross-roads;\nhas failed to ask himself at some time: What, after all, am I? Am I an\nAmerican or am I a Negro? Can I be both? Or is it my duty to cease to be\na Negro as soon as possible and be an American? If I strive as a Negro,\nam I not perpetuating the very cleft that threatens and separates Black\nand White America? Is not my only possible practical aim the subduction\nof all that is Negro in me to the American? Does my black blood place\nupon me any more obligation to assert my nationality than German, or\nIrish or Italian blood would?\n\nIt is such incessant self-questioning and the hesitation that arises\nfrom it, that is making the present period a time of vacillation and\ncontradiction for the American Negro; combined race action is stifled,\nrace responsibility is shirked, race enterprises languish, and the best\nblood, the best talent, the best energy of the Negro people cannot be\nmarshalled to do the bidding of the race. They stand back to make room\nfor every rascal and demagogue who chooses to cloak his selfish deviltry\nunder the veil of race pride.\n\nIs this right? Is it rational? Is it good policy? Have we in America a\ndistinct mission as a race--a distinct sphere of action and an\nopportunity for race development, or is self-obliteration the highest\nend to which Negro blood dare aspire?\n\nIf we carefully consider what race prejudice really is, we find it,\nhistorically, to be nothing but the friction between different groups of\npeople; it is the difference in aim, in feeling, in ideals of two\ndifferent races; if, now, this difference exists touching territory,\nlaws, language, or even religion, it is manifest that these people\ncannot live in the same territory without fatal collision; but if, on\nthe other hand, there is substantial agreement in laws, language and\nreligion; if there is a satisfactory adjustment of economic life, then\nthere is no reason why, in the same country and on the same street, two\nor three great national ideals might not thrive and develop, that men of\ndifferent races might not strive together for their race ideals as well,\nperhaps even better, than in isolation. Here, it seems to me, is the\nreading of the riddle that puzzles so many of us. We are Americans, not\nonly by birth and by citizenship, but by our political ideals, our\nlanguage, our religion. Farther than that, our Americanism does not go.\nAt that point, we are Negroes, members of a vast historic race that from\nthe very dawn of creation has slept, but half awakening in the dark\nforests of its African fatherland. We are the first fruits of this new\nnation, the harbinger of that black to-morrow which is yet destined to\nsoften the whiteness of the Teutonic to-day. We are that people whose\nsubtle sense of song has given America its only American music, its only\nAmerican fairy tales, its only touch of pathos and humor amid its mad\nmoney-getting plutocracy. As such, it is our duty to conserve our\nphysical powers, our intellectual endowments, our spiritual ideals; as a\nrace we must strive by race organization, by race solidarity, by race\nunity to the realization of that broader humanity which freely\nrecognizes differences in men, but sternly deprecates inequality in\ntheir opportunities of development.\n\nFor the accomplishment of these ends we need race organizations: Negro\ncolleges, Negro newspapers, Negro business organizations, a Negro school\nof literature and art, and an intellectual clearing house, for all these\nproducts of the Negro mind, which we may call a Negro Academy. Not only\nis all this necessary for positive advance, it is absolutely imperative\nfor negative defense. Let us not deceive ourselves at our situation in\nthis country. Weighted with a heritage of moral iniquity from our past\nhistory, hard pressed in the economic world by foreign immigrants and\nnative prejudice, hated here, despised there and pitied everywhere; our\none haven of refuge is ourselves, and but one means of advance, our own\nbelief in our great destiny, our own implicit trust in our ability and\nworth. There is no power under God's high heaven that can stop the\nadvance of eight thousand thousand honest, earnest, inspired and united\npeople. But--and here is the rub--they _must_ be honest, fearlessly\ncriticising their own faults, zealously correcting them; they must be\n_earnest_. No people that laughs at itself, and ridicules itself, and\nwishes to God it was anything but itself ever wrote its name in history;\nit _must_ be inspired with the Divine faith of our black mothers, that\nout of the blood and dust of battle will march a victorious host, a\nmighty nation, a peculiar people, to speak to the nations of earth a\nDivine truth that shall make them free. And such a people must be\nunited; not merely united for the organized theft of political spoils,\nnot united to disgrace religion with whoremongers and ward-heelers; not\nunited merely to protest and pass resolutions, but united to stop the\nravages of consumption among the Negro people, united to keep black boys\nfrom loafing, gambling and crime; united to guard the purity of black\nwomen and to reduce that vast army of black prostitutes that is today\nmarching to hell; and united in serious organizations, to determine by\ncareful conference and thoughtful interchange of opinion the broad lines\nof policy and action for the American Negro.\n\nThis is the reason for being which the American Negro Academy has. It\naims at once to be the epitome and expression of the intellect of the\nblack-blooded people of America, the exponent of the race ideals of one\nof the world's great races. As such, the Academy must, if successful, be\n\n  (_a_). Representative in character.\n\n  (_b_). Impartial in conduct.\n\n  (_c_). Firm in leadership.\n\nIt must be representative in character; not in that it represents all\ninterests or all factions, but in that it seeks to comprise something of\nthe _best_ thought, the most unselfish striving and the highest ideals.\nThere are scattered in forgotten nooks and corners throughout the land,\nNegroes of some considerable training, of high minds, and high motives,\nwho are unknown to their fellows, who exert far too little influence.\nThese the Negro Academy should strive to bring into touch with each\nother and to give them a common mouthpiece.\n\nThe Academy should be impartial in conduct; while it aims to exalt the\npeople it should aim to do so by truth--not by lies, by honesty--not by\nflattery. It should continually impress the fact upon the Negro people\nthat they must not expect to have things done for them--they MUST DO FOR\nTHEMSELVES; that they have on their hands a vast work of self-reformation\nto do, and that a little less complaint and whining, and a little more\ndogged work and manly striving would do us more credit and benefit than a\nthousand Force or Civil Rights bills.\n\nFinally, the American Negro Academy must point out a practical path of\nadvance to the Negro people; there lie before every Negro today hundreds\nof questions of policy and right which must be settled and which each\none settles now, not in accordance with any rule, but by impulse or\nindividual preference; for instance: What should be the attitude of\nNegroes toward the educational qualification for voters? What should be\nour attitude toward separate schools? How should we meet discriminations\non railways and in hotels? Such questions need not so much specific\nanswers for each part as a general expression of policy, and nobody\nshould be better fitted to announce such a policy than a representative\nhonest Negro Academy.\n\nAll this, however, must come in time after careful organization and long\nconference. The immediate work before us should be practical and have\ndirect bearing upon the situation of the Negro. The historical work of\ncollecting the laws of the United States and of the various States of\nthe Union with regard to the Negro is a work of such magnitude and\nimportance that no body but one like this could think of undertaking it.\nIf we could accomplish that one task we would justify our existence.\n\nIn the field of Sociology an appalling work lies before us. First, we\nmust unflinchingly and bravely face the truth, not with apologies, but\nwith solemn earnestness. The Negro Academy ought to sound a note of\nwarning that would echo in every black cabin in the land: _Unless we\nconquer our present vices they will conquer us_; we are diseased, we are\ndeveloping criminal tendencies, and an alarmingly large percentage of\nour men and women are sexually impure. The Negro Academy should stand\nand proclaim this over the housetops, crying with Garrison: _I will not\nequivocate, I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard_. The\nAcademy should seek to gather about it the talented, unselfish men, the\npure and noble-minded women, to fight an army of devils that disgraces\nour manhood and our womanhood. There does not stand today upon God's\nearth a race more capable in muscle, in intellect, in morals, than the\nAmerican Negro, if he will bend his energies in the right direction; if\nhe will\n\n      Burst his birth's invidious bar\n  And grasp the skirts of happy chance,\n  And breast the blows of circumstance,\n      And grapple with his evil star.\n\nIn science and morals, I have indicated two fields of work for the\nAcademy. Finally, in practical policy, I wish to suggest the following\n_Academy Creed_:\n\n1. We believe that the Negro people, as a race, have a contribution to\nmake to civilization and humanity, which no other race can make.\n\n2. We believe it the duty of the Americans of Negro descent, as a body,\nto maintain their race identity until this mission of the Negro people\nis accomplished, and the ideal of human brotherhood has become a\npractical possibility.\n\n3. We believe that, unless modern civilization is a failure, it is\nentirely feasible and practicable for two races in such essential\npolitical, economic and religious harmony as the white and colored\npeople of America, to develop side by side in peace and mutual\nhappiness, the peculiar contribution which each has to make to the\nculture of their common country.\n\n4. As a means to this end we advocate, not such social equality between\nthese races as would disregard human likes and dislikes, but such a\nsocial equilibrium as would, throughout all the complicated relations of\nlife, give due and just consideration to culture, ability, and moral\nworth, whether they be found under white or black skins.\n\n5. We believe that the first and greatest step toward the settlement of\nthe present friction between the races--commonly called the Negro\nProblem--lies in the correction of the immorality, crime and laziness\namong the Negroes themselves, which still remains as a heritage from\nslavery. We believe that only earnest and long continued efforts on our\nown part can cure these social ills.\n\n6. We believe that the second great step toward a better adjustment of\nthe relations between the races, should be a more impartial selection of\nability in the economic and intellectual world, and a greater respect\nfor personal liberty and worth, regardless of race. We believe that only\nearnest efforts on the part of the white people of this country will\nbring much needed reform in these matters.\n\n7. On the basis of the foregoing declaration, and firmly believing in\nour high destiny, we, as American Negroes, are resolved to strive in\nevery honorable way for the realization of the best and highest aims,\nfor the development of strong manhood and pure womanhood, and for the\nrearing of a race ideal in America and Africa, to the glory of God and\nthe uplifting of the Negro people.            W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPassages in italics are indicated by _underscore_.\n\nThe following misprints have been corrected:\n  \"menta\" corrected to \"mental\" (page 8)\n  \"o;ganization\" corrected to \"organization\" (page 14)\n\nOther than the corrections listed above, printer's spelling and\nhyphenation usage have been retained.","title":"The Conservation of Races: The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 2","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":4577}