RACE AND EMPIRES

...Reviewed by Max C. Otto IT'S a small book, this latest by Burghardt Du Bois, the size you can hold in your hand while you read without murdering your arm...

...Henceforth the majority of the inhabitants of the earth, who happen for the most part to be colored, must be regarded as having the right and the capacity to share in human progress and to become co-partners in that democracy which alone can ensure peace among men, by the abolition of poverty, the education of the masses, protection from disease, and the scientific treatment of crime...

...If he reads so much as 10 pages, he'll be in trouble, and if he reads to the end, the world will never be the same to him...

...THE premises from which the book was written, stated in the author's own words, are these: "The present war has made it clear that we can no longer regard Western Europe and North America as the world for which civilization exists...

...Moreover, a chapter is devoted to enigmatic Russia, which is today an inspiration to exploited masses everywhere...

...Du Boig does not pretend that all men should be treated as if they were in every respect equal...

...Yes, never...

...One hundred forty-three pages,, that's all, but they raise the blinds and open the windows...

...There was a time when these conditions might be expected to continue indefinitely unchanged, but now the suppressed millions are for various reasons awake to the possibility of a happier existence...

...It centers on "the oligarchical control of civilization by the white race" and upon "the present imperial ownership of disfranchised colonies...

...The taste that remains with me is a bitter one...

...but they are pressing toward education with bitter determination...

...They have "but scraps of understanding of modern accumulations of knowledge...

...MR...

...This is the new meaning of the "shout from the old hills of heaven: Go down, Moses 1...

...Du Bois contends that unless the majority of men cease to be regarded "mainly as sources of profit for Europe and North America," we shall, whatever our various political and social rearrangements, plan not peace but war, and shall endanger, if not in the end destroy, political and social democracy everywhere...

...For the fact is that most of us are but dimly if at all aware of the millions who are denied a halfway decent chance at living and for no better reason than the darker color of their skin...

...PERSONALLY, I take it to be beyond doubt that a new day has dawned for "colonial conquered peoples," and it is high time that the "conquerors" pay some attention to this stupendous occurrence...

...The plight of these millions, the causes and consequences of keeping them "in their place," and the world-wide human catastrophe toward which we are drifting, white and non-white, by remaining ignorantly indifferent to this colossal injustice, something like this makes up the remarkably rich content of a well documented study...

...A wounded and tired world calls out for a new conception of life, for a religion "without sin and hell" and a technique "shorn of ruthless greed...

...If Great Britain and the United States can do this, they do not need to fear Russia, or Communism...

...DuBois, "the colonial areas lie inert, or sullenly resentful or seething with hate and unrest...

...They are today the places of greatest concentration of poverty, disease, and ignorance of what the human mind has come to know...

...for it is a day that will usher in a more dignified and meaningful existence for a vast multitude of men and women who have too long been regarded as only good enough to make life easier and pleasanter for their white exploiters, or it will culminate in a bloody, world-wide struggle between the white and colored races...

...They are centers of helplessness, of discouragement of initiative, of forced labor, and of legal suppression of all activities or thoughts which the master country fears or dislikes...

...Mr...

...The scope of the discussion is evident from even a cursory reading of the foregoing paragraph...

...nor can we look upon European culture as the norm for all peoples...

...And I'm afraid nothing can wash it away...

...Color and Democracy not only draws a graphic picture of colonies and empires, present and past, seen in the perspective of history...

...The quality and quantity of injustice suffered by countless human beings who have been preyed upon by being put and kept in a position of inferiority is staggering, and it is a sad fact that many of us who would not consciously be guilty of cruelty to our fellow men have unconsciously acquiesced in this mass cruelty...

...it discusses with equal frankness the second-class citizenship to which Negroes, for example, are condemned in the United States...

...The following paragraphs sum up not unfairly what the author has to say on this head: "There is still a chance for the capitalist nations to set their houses in order, and to show that neither Socialism nor its extreme, Communism, is necessary for human happiness and progress...

...On the other hand, in the restoration of the world, if this war, like the First World War, is followed by widespread economic disaster, by starvation and disease, by continued ignorance and the attempt of certain races and peoples absolutely to dominate and condition others—then any attempt to fight Socialism, Communism, or other leftward movements will be absolutely without result, unless those movements also fail to bring happiness and contentment to mankind...

...Today," according to Mr...

...Colonies are the slums of the world," says this author...

...The book ends on a plea for the union of religious idealism and scientific technique...

...All they need to fear is poverty, unemployment, ignorance, race hate, and the combination of these things, which has been modern imperialism...

...He does believe, and I think quite correctly, that "the real reason for lack of intelligence and experience of the mass of people is poverty...

...Any one who wants to keep the outlook to which he has been conditioned had better not look between the covers of this book...

...These few quotations should give the reader of this review a suggestion of the book's content and flavor...

...There has been surfeit of creed, dogma, and priestly assumption to bridle the intelligence of men...

...However, the book itself must be read and reread to get the real taste of the abundant intellectual, social, and spiritual food which is here provided...

...there has been enough of the aimless arrogance of science used to heal and kill, destroy and build...

...Historical accident placed them at the mercy of those of whitish skin color, and color prejudice stands in the way of a realistic readjustment...

...Never...