The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1910-08-25

hlI6n III IuS lOWSl where SlC De-
side the loud complaining Of the
human sea + know many souls that
toss and whirl and pass, but none
there are that puzzle me more than
the Souls Of White Folks. Not mind
you. the souls OF them that are white,
but souls Of them that have become
painfully conscious Of their white
ness; those in whose minds the
paleness Of their bodily skins Is
fraught with tremendous and eternal
significance.
Forgetting Gas l can at times for
getl the meaning Of this singular
obsession to me and my folk, I be-
come the more acutely sensitive to
the marvellous part this thought Is
playing today, and to the way it is
developing the Souls of White Folk,
and ! wonder what the end will be.
The discovery Of personal white
neess among the worlds people is a
very modern thing, a nineteenth and
twentieth century matter, indeed.
The ancient world would have
laughed at such a distinction. The
middle age regarded it with mild
'curiousity, and even up into the
eighteenth century We were ham
mering our national manikins into
one great Universal Man with fine
frenzy which ignored color and race
as we'll as birth. Today We have
changed all that, and the world, in
sudden emotional conversion, has
discovered that it is white, and, by
that token, wonderful
When I seek to explain this to me
inexplicable phenomenon. there al
ways creeps first TO my mind the
analogy Of the child and his candy.
TO every child there comes a time
when the toothsomeness Of his sweets
Is strangely enhanced, by the thought
that his playmat sass !. u, EUR
ffrref
! falls, for with one accord the mother
world seeks to teach this child the
third new joy Of Iharing. Any
thought, however, gf sharing their
| color is to white folks not simply
unthinkable, but It's mention is liable
to lead to violent explosions Of anger
and Vituperation. Not only Is there
this unrebuked and vociferously
applauded greediness, but something
that sounds: II shall keep my candy
and you shall not have yours" Or,
in other words, it is not the obvious
propositions II am white and you
are black" but the astonishing dec
iaration, II am white and you are
nothing"
This assumption that Of all the
hues Of God, whiteness alone is candy
to the world child-is inherently and
obviously better than brownness or
| tan-leads to curious acts; even the
sWeeter souls Of the dominant world,
| as they discourse with me on wealth
er, veal and woe, are continually
playing above their actual words
| an obligato of turn and tone, say
ing:
| MY poor un-white thing! Weep
not nor rage. l know, too we'll, that
the curse Of God lies heavy on you.
Why? That is not for me to say;
but-be brave! Do yeHr-weFk- In your
| !owly sphere, praying the good Lord
| that into heaven above, where all Is
love, you may, one day, be born
| whiten"
At such times I have an unholy
| desire to laugh, and to ask with
seeming lrrelcvance and certain
| irreverence:
But what on earth is whiteness,
that one should so desire it," Then
always somehow, some way, silently
but clearly, / am given to under
stand that whiteness is the owner
ship Of the earth, forever and ever,
Amen,
| Now, what IS the effect on a man
or nation when it comes passionate
| ly to believe such an extraordinary
d1ctum as this? That nations are
coming to believe 1t is manifest daily
Wave on wave, each with in.
creasing viruloncc, is dashing this
new religion Of whjtencsS on the
shores Of our time. Its first effects
are funny; he strut Of the Southern
er, the arrogance Of the Englishmar
amuck, the WhOOp Of the h0odlun
who vicariOusly leads your mob. Mex
1t appears dampcniug generous en-
thusiasm in what we once counted
glorious; to free the slaves Is dis
covered to be tOlerable only In so ia
as it freed his master. Do we sens,