Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1923-03-17
NEGRO IS SUPERIOR TO WHITES, SAYS
Or. " Ed. DUBOIS IN SMART SET ARTICLE

Negroes are superior to whites. ps-
eserts DR.. w. E. b. Du Bots TN all arti-
che entitled THE Superior Race" and
| published in the March number Of
"The Smart Set" magazine t(25 Wesi
45th Street, New York cfty.) DR.. Du
Bois is editor of the Crisis and amen
her of the Board of Directors of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People. The article
| is written in SAITH ical form as a con-
versation with an imaginary white
friend.
Compare humanity at its best or
worst with the ideal says DR.. Du
Bois, land humanity suffers. But black
| folk in most attributes uof physical
beauty. in line and height and curve
| Lave the same norms as whites and
differ only in small details of color.
hair and curve of csnntenances. Now
con there by any question but that aS
! Colors bronze, mahogany, coffee and
! gold are far lovelier than pink, gray
and marble? Hair is matter of taste.
Some will have it drab and stringy
and others in a gray, woven, unmov-
| ing mass. Most of us like it some
where between. in tiny tendrills.
smoking curls and sweeping curves.
have loved all these varieties in my
day. / prefer the crinkly kind, almost
wavy, in black, brown and glisteninc.
In faces 1 hate straight features:
needles and raZors may be sharp
but beautiful, never"
In raking criticism of the modern
| factory system and industrialism pro
duced by the white man. DR.. Du Bois
asserts the Negroes sense of beauty
has protected him from it:
| Art is not simply works of art; it
is the spirit that knows Beauty, that
| has music in its soul and the color OF
sunsets in it's headkerchiefs; that can
dance on flaming world and make
the world dance too. Such is the soul
of the Negro.
Why. do you know the ewo
finest things in the industry of the
West finer than factory. shop or
ship? One is the black laborers' 0Satur-
day off. Neither the whip of the driy.
'er, nor starvation wage. nor the dis
gust of the Yankee, nor the call of the
cotton crops has yet convinced the
common black variety of plantation
laborer that one day in the week is
enough for rest and play He wants
two days. And. from California to
Texas from Florida to Trinidad, he
takes two days while the planter
screams and curses. They have beaten
the English slavery. the French anu
German peasants and the North 1tal-
| ian contadini into twelve-lrour siXi1ay
slaves. They crushed the Chinese and
Indian coolie into twenty-four hour
! beast of burden, they have even matte
! the American, free, white and twenty
one. believe that daily toll is one OF
the Ten Commandments But not the
! Negro. From Monday to Friday the
field hand is a slave: then for forty,
eight gOlden. hours he is free, and
| through these same forty-eight hours
he may yet free the dumb, driven cat
tie Of the world.
Then the second thing, laughter
This race has the greatest of the gifts
OF God. laughter. 1t dances and sings;
1T is humble; it longs to learn IL
| loves men; it loves women. 1t is frank
ly, BADLY deliciously human in an
artificial and nypocriticai land. If you
will hear men laugh, go to Guinea.
BLACK Bottom" "Niggertown," Har-
lem. IF you want to feel humor too
exquisite and subtle for translation
sit invisibly among a gang Of Negro
workers. The white world has its
g.bes and cruel caricatures; 1t has its
loud outlaws, hut to the black world
alone belongs the delicious chuckle"
The present danger to white civiliza
tion is it's fear of truth, according to
DR.. Du Bois:
1--WE have raised Propaganda to
Capital "P" and elaborated IN art. al
most a science of how one may make
the world believe what is not true
provided the untruth is widely wish
ed-for thing like the probable extermi
nation of Negroes, the failure of the
Chinese Republic, the incapacity Of
India for self-rule. the failure of Rus
sian Revolution. When in other days
the world lied 1t was to world that
expected lies and consciously defend
ed them; when the world lies today 1t
is to world that pretends to be true"
Whereat white friend. with whom
DR.. Du Bois purports to be talking,
makes the following comment:
! I'm other words, according to you,