Race

=**Race in America**=

readily be understood that there are but two alternatives for the future, the Negroes and the whites must either wholly part or wholly mingle. (432) De Tocqueville
We were lesser. Nicer, brighter, but still lesser. Dolls we could destroy, but we could not destroy the honey voices of parents and aunts, the obedience in the eyes of our peers, the slippery light in the yes of our teachers when they encountered the Maureen Peals of the world. What was the secret? what did we lack? why was it important? and so what? Guileless and without vanity, we were still in love with ourselves then. We felt comfortable in our skins, enjoyed the news that our senses released to us. admired our dirt, cultivated our scars, and could nor comprehend this unworthiness. -the Bluest eye

=
=====

"The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, - this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not African-ize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face." -W.E.B. Du Bois media type="youtube" key="OZUILawfkCM&hl=en" height="355" width="425" Power affluence reflection fear