|
|
|
GARVEY SPEAKS Issue #44 September 28th, 2008
BLACK MAN'S ASPIRATIONS
There is no doubt about it that the black man of America today aspires to the White House, to the Cabinet, and to the Senate, and the House. He apsires to be head of State and municipal governments. What are you going to do with him? He cannot be satisfied in the midst of a majority group that seeks to protect its interest at all hazards; then the only alternative is to give the Negro a place of his own.
We appeal to the sober white minds of America, and not the selfish ones. The selfish ones will see nothing more than the immediate present, but the deep thinking man will see the result of another fifty or one hundred years, when these two peoples will be brought together in closer contact of rivalry. As races we practically represent a similar intelligence today. We have graduated from the same schools, colleges, and universities. What can you do with men who are equally and competently fitted in mind, but give them an equal chance, and if there is no chance of equality, there must be dissatisfaction on the one hand. That dissatisfaction we have in our midst now. We have it manifested by W.E.B. Du Bois, by James Weldon Johnson; we have it manifested by the organization known as the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, that seeks to bring about social equality, political equality, and industrial equality, things that are guaranteed us under the Constitution but which, in the face of a majority race, we cannot demand, because of the terrible odds against us. In the midst of this, then, what can we do but seek an outlet of our own unless, we intend to fight a losing game. Reason will dictate that there is no benefit to be derived from fighting always a losing game. We will lose until we have completely lost our stand in America. To repeat myself, we talk about progress. What progress have we made when everything we do is done through the good will and grace of the liberal white man of the present day? But can he always afford to be liberal? Do you not realize that in another few decades he will have on his hands a problem of his own - a problem to feed his own children, to take care of his own flesh and blood? In the midst of that crisis, when he finds not even enough to feed himself, what will become of te Negro? The Negro naturally must die to give way, and make room for others who are better prepared to live. That is the danger, men; and that is why we have the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The condition that I have referred to will not only be true of America and of continental Europe; it will be true of wherever the white race lives. There will not be room enough for them, and others who seek to compete with them. That is why we hear the cry of India for the Indians, Asia for the Asiatics, and we raise the cry of Africa for the Africans, those at home and those abroad.
Excerpt taken from Africa for the Africans published in 1923.
 
|