From "Superman" to Man. J. A. Rogers
do not think of themselves as white men, but as Germans, Frenchmen, etc. And in Brazil, where slavery existed as late as 1888, the Negro is taught not only to regard himself the equal of the white man, but he is given an opportunity to prove it. There is no walk of Brazilian life, official or unofficial, where he is not welcome and which he has not filled At least two Brazilian presidents were of Negro descent. In the United States, on the other hand, it does appear as if everything possible is done to humble the Negro, to suppress his self-respect. There ought to be small wonder then, if many Negroes do not show sufficient manly dignity, and many others, without weighing the purport, try to appear white, an act, that, after all, somewhat parallels that of the white man who blisters himself in the sun in an endeavor to appear, no doubt, like the bronzed heroes of the story books.”
The passenger did not respond. He appeared to be busily engaged in studying the inlaid woodwork. Dixon then added with assumed gravity:—
“I concede, however, sir, that the average Negro acknowledges his inferiority tacitly and often by speech.”
The senator straightened up instantly. He smiled triumphantly and replied with an air of finality, “Well, that settles the argument. I knew you would finally come to the truth.” He rose as if to go.
“But, in this instance,” Dixon queried archly, “might not an acknowledgment of inferiority prove a certain superiority?”
“Inferiority proving superiority!” shouted the other, dropping back into his seat. “What are you saying, anyway?”
“Doesn’t the case of the sexes explain this seeming paradox? The average male human, as you will admit, is egotistic. The more that woman, the weaker, humors this trait, the better she serves here own interest; similarly, the average white man’s weak point is his color egotism, and the more the Negro humors this failing, the more he serves his own interest. The greater the self-interest of the woman, the more credulous she appears to tales of masculine prowess; the greater the self-interest of the Negro, the more he flatters the white man’s egotism. Now, sir, who is the cleverer, the fooled or the one who fools?”
The senator did not reply.
Dixon continued, “Permit me to illustrate. One day I was in a bar in Chicago when a white man, whom I instantly recognized as a Southerner by his dress and manner, entered. Lounging in a corner was a Negro, one of those human beings who elect to live by his wits. No sooner had the Southerner ordered his drink than the Negro sidled up to him, and looking him over admiringly said, with one eye on the white man’s glass, ‘What a pretty white man! Say, boss, yo’ is fum Mizzourah, ain’t yo’?’
“ ‘Yes,’ said the white man pleased at the open admiration, ‘an’ wheh ah yo’ fum?’
“ ‘Ah, boss,’ chided the Negro, ‘how kin yo’ ast me dat. Boss, Ah’ll have a gin-an-rass, too. Dat’ll tell yo’!’ (Raspberry wine and gin, a favorite drink among certain classes in Missouri.)
“The Negro had his drink, and the white man in paying pulled out a roll of bills. The sight of so much money fired the Negro’s eloquence. He redoubled his flattery, telling his host how the Northern ‘niggers’ were ‘biggity,’ how they thought themselves as good a white folks,’ and when he had his victim flattered to the seventh heaven of delight, he sprang a hard luck story. The result was several more ‘gin-an-rasses’ and a dollar!”
Dixon told the story in a breezy manner, but the senator failed to see any humor in it.
“From what you say,” he objected coldly, “the white man must have been very ignorant. And then might not a ‘nig——’ Negro permit himself to be thus flattered by a white man?”
“Possibly. But this story, and similar ones I could tell you, prove that acknowledgment of inferiority often means self-interest. The case of Booker T. Washington, however, proves a better example. Washington got along well in the South because he knew just how to tickle the color-vanity of the whites. Had he shown the assertive spirit of William Monroe Trotter, he would not have got along in the South at all. But, I am opposed to this policy of trying to gain by subterfuge or blandishment, that which is one’s divine right!”
Silence for a few moments, then the senator said, “Well, how do you explain this? Negroes think themselves superior to other Negroes in proportion to the amount of Caucasian blood in their veins. If that is not an instinctive acknowledgment of inferiority I don’t know what it is.”
“It is true,” conceded Dixon, “that many lighter-skinned Negroes do look down on their darker brothers. Many others shun them too, from economic necessity; that is, they can earn more by passing for white. But, in the first instance, can’t we find a similar thing among whites? Mark you, I am not defending this inexcusable ignorance among so-called Negroes. I have always held that the man who protests against a thing should be the last man to practice it. In the United States a premium is set upon Caucasian blood (of course, I use the term figuratively), hence, some mixed bloods believe themselves of superior caste. In the United States, due to the absence of a nobility, a premium is set upon Mayflower descent, and many persons so descended pride themselves upon their superiority due to ancestry—blue-bloods—F. F. V.’s, yes, even from the dark-skinned Pocahontas. Some rich American women go even further. They marry Europeans with titles, some of whom were only pimps who received social recognition.
“Again, it must be remembered that there is considerable rivalry between the brunettes and the blondes. I have heard rather heated arguments between white women of these types as to their respective merits. Blondes, having the lesser amount of pigment, are supposed to be the more virtuous, which, perhaps accounts for the large number of chemical blondes among women of your race … and mine, too.
“But those among us who have an infusion of Caucasian blood have nothing to boast of since such are in the position of children who have been abandoned by one of their parents. Then, too, whenever they are discovered among the whites they are always unceremoniously thrust out. In my opinion the Negro who takes pride in his white descent simply does not think.”
The bell had begun to ring just as Dixon was finishing, and he went in to answer the call. He was very glad of the interruption and remained away, hoping to break off the argument, but the senator had no such intention. He simply could not quit now. When Dixon ten minutes later had occasion to re-enter the room he immediately assailed him with:
“There is another important point of Negro inferiority. The features of the Caucasian are more pleasing, not only to the Caucasian, but to the Negroes, judging from their own comments. No one would ever think of comparing the physiognomy of a Negro with that of an an Adonis or an Aphrodite. The white man‘s native sense of beauty will never permit him to modify his ideals.” He paused, then added with conviction: “The Negro’s physiognomy will ever make him unpleasing to the white man.”
Dixon thought of telling him that this matter of physiognomy was the cause of all the trouble, but replied, instead: “The features of the Caucasian are, as a rule, more pleasing only to his own eye for each human variety, except when imbued with the thought of another people, as say, the Negro in the New World, considers its facial casts the standard. Darwin, in his ‘Descent of Man,’ says that when the Negro boys on the east coast of Africa saw Burton, the explorer, they cried out:
“ ‘Look at the white man! Does he not look like a white ape?’
“Winwood Reade said that the Negroes on the Western Coast admired a very black skin more than one of a lighter tint. Agbebi, a West African scientist, says in his paper before the Races Congress (here Dixon consulted his notebook):
“ ‘The unsophisticated African entertains an aversion to white people, and when accidentally or unexpectedly meeting a white man, he turns or takes to his heels, it is because he feels that he has come upon some unusual or unearthly creature, some hobgoblin or ghost or sprite, and that an aquiline nose, scant lips, and cat-like eyes afflict him.’
“Dan Crawford, the famous African missionary, tells of an instance where a number of Negro women in Central Africa, on seeing a white man for the first time, nearly broke down a doorway in