Among Negroes Of My Generation There Was Not Only Little Direct Acquaintance Or Consciously Inherited Knowledge Of Africa, But Much Distaste And Recoil Because Of What The White World Taught Them About The Dark Continent. There Arose Resentment That A Group Like Ours, Born And Bred In The United States For Centuries, Should Be Regarded As Africans At All. They Were, As Most Of Them Began Gradually To Assert, Americans. My Father's Father Was Particularly Bitter About This. He Would Not Accept An Invitation To A 'negro' Picnic. He Would Not Segregate Himself In Any Way.

-W. E. B. Du Bois

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Among Negroes Of My Generation There Was

W. E. B. Du Bois

Among Negroes Of My Generation There Was Not Only Little Direct Acquaintance Or Consciously Inherited Knowledge Of Africa, But Much Distaste And Recoil Because Of What The White World Taught Them About The Dark Continent. There Arose Resentment That A Group Like Ours, Born And Bred In The United States For Centuries, Should Be Regarded As Africans At All. They Were, As Most Of Them Began Gradually To Assert, Americans. My Father's Father Was Particularly Bitter About This. He Would Not Accept An Invitation To A 'negro' Picnic. He Would Not Segregate Himself In Any Way.

Topic

Father

Dark

White

One Is Astonished In The Study Of History At The Recurrence Of The Idea That Evil Must Be Forgotten, Distorted, Skimmed Over. We Must Not Remember That Daniel Webster Got Drunk But Only That He Was A Splendid Constitutional Lawyer. We Must Forget That George Washington Was A Slave Owner . . . And Simply Remember The Things We Regard As Creditable And Inspiring. The Difficulty, Of Course, With This Philosophy Is That History Loses Its Value As An Incentive And Example; It Paints Perfect Man And Noble Nations, But It Does Not Tell The Truth.

Philosophy

Men

Ideas