The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-01-05
RACE IDEALS; EFFECTS.

extent injuriously affected. That tn
Afro-American race, thrown into suc]
system Of training for such perio,
of time, developed traits and charac
teristics at variance with natures law
and peculiar to itself, is natural, ant
we designate such peculiar traits ant
characteristics the disease of the race
Before we can locate the nature ant
extent Of the ills of the <Afro-Ameri
can and establish how far adverse
training and influences have carried
him from q normal state, we shall
have to discover by comparisons how
far, in his secondary state of free,
dom, he differs from man in an orig.
inal state Of freedom.
That can best be done by compar.
ing the ideals, feelings and disposi.
tions Of the Afro-American with those
of man in ,an original state, whose
ideals, feelings and dispositions are
what nature made them, as they have
not been disturbed injuriously by the
art Of man.
The question may be asked, "What
are ideals? :" and answered by saying
that ideals, MANS highest conception
of persons, places, things or qualities
sometimes visionary and unattain-
able, are the heights to which indi-
viduals, families, races or nations
aspire, and by which they are most
largely influenced.
All donot have the same ideals, nor
are the standards Of ideals station
ary. Like plants, ideals are suscepti-
BILE of development, and their various
standards depend upon the kind of
cultivation had in their production.
In a state of natural freedom, all
races have their human ideals-their
highest conceptions of man, in them
selves, and any variation from this
rule indicates that nature has been
disturbed. 80
A comparative examination will
show how far, adverse training has
carried the Afro-American during his
period Of bondage from the universal
law Of self-appreciation, SO predomi
mating, not alone in man in a natural
state Of freedom, but in every living
thing. s .- ...~.
ss1 e t1al r ae;atiensasd q
want Of seIf-preseryCn instead, we
must learn to VIII extent he has
been warped, and means used, be-
fore We are prepared TO use counter
vailing influences as means Of his
rehabilitation; learn how far his ad-
verse training has carried him from
the normal latitude and longitude of
human nature. ~ -
Then tkesyariations seen in physi-
cal likeness, languages customs, hab-
its and manners can only be account
ed for by the variations of climatic
effects, md other natural causes and
conditions to which their descendants
have been subjected since the flood,
evidences of which are abundant on
every hand, through or by the effect
which a short change Of climate and
other natural conditions have upon
the physical Likeness, language, Gus
toms and habits OF lndlVaouals unuei u
our very eyes.
We get our various variations from
greater or lesser effects OF the same
causes, or intermixtures.
Mans Ideals in . Natural STATE VI
Freedom. ~
So that when thg children Of each
brother emerged from their isolated
home il the wilderness, accustomed to
see only persons in their own physical
likeness, to hear only their own Ian
guage4 spoken and to ! witness only
their own customs, habits and man-
ners. they were greatly shocked and
confused at meeting their cousins, and
concluded that the differences seen
were brought about by some great
misfortune visited upon them.
AS each races ideal man is in ITSELF
it paints, pictures or models man IN
the physical likeness Of it's own mem
bers. and having no higher. .concep-
ton of the forms Of God and angels
than the physical form of it's own
member. It : paints, pictures or models
the forms 81 God and angels in their
phvsical likeness. That is, the Chi
g ~ t-.tgf o.