The Color Line -Frederick Douglass p

the term color line was originally used as a reference to the racial segregation that existed in the United States after the abolition of slavery. An article by Frederick Douglass that was titled "The Color Line"[ was published in the North American Review in 1881. The phrase gained fame after W. E. B. Du Bois' repeated use of it in his 1903 book The Souls of Black Folk.

The phrase sees current usage as a reference to modern racial discrimination in the United States and legalized segregation after the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement. The Color Line Racism

The Color Line Racism 1740 Words7 Pages Many people always speak of how today’s world is complex and convoluted, as if it was simple before that particular point. To build a future for one self, they must first know the past to progress. Frederick Douglass wrote a short essay on the Color Line, he does not directly state a definition of the color line, but rather explains the current racial affections, with in depth of the two conflicting races. He speaks on how the white philosophers spoke open and confidently about how the Negro was inferior. The Anglo Saxon had always been prejudice against the opposite race, it was their natural supposedly, but this is not based in science. If that if the case then we as humanity should hint and remove that aspect, not display so assertively…show more content… Douglass writes in his short essay, begins with the following statement. “It is part of the Saxon to be prejudice, they have always been,” (Douglass, 567). Prejudice and Saxon (white) are one and the same, it is so natural to them. One would think that the information of the 1800’s would be limited to that time frame, but even in 2015 this statement appears to be true in a sense. Today the majority is still white, thus they remain in power of the systematic racism. In Du Bois’ the Problem of the Color Line at the Turn of the 20th Century, he gives context that places the prejudice of America on a scale, he states, “This fissure between white and black is not everywhere of the same width. Naturally it is the widest in the former slave states and narrowest in the older and more cultivated east. It seldom, however, wholly closes up in New England, while it is threatening width in the south is the Negro Problem,” (Du Bois, 35). The color line in this sense is the fissure of the whites and blacks. The greatest depth of the line is that closest in the heart of the south. Du Bois mentions that the fissure is least in “more older and cultivated” as one moves east; America is not yet of age nor culture enough to understand the gravity of their actions, but they are not excuse by any means. Hate and prejudice is…show more content…

The audacity of whites came their various oppressions before landing in America, Douglass states, “that they had conquered the sea, and had conquered the land, but that it remained for them to conquer their prejudices,” (Douglass, 568). Educated philosophers preach the Negro inferior to the white man, Du Bois states, “Many Americans social philosophers still persist in ascribing to Negro inferiority,” (Du Bois, 42). In today it is not directly stated, but rather suggested. White is still ideal, from personal experience, some private schools in Washington D.C have a minority cap to only allow an exact number of students of color. The schools where more students of color were allowed had funding issues, thus making it difficult to have the latest tools and labs to teach in. Douglass list points of which admission of any would prove the argument: “If prejudice in nature, then there will always be an issues when to races are brought together […] if there is anywhere in the world where white and black don’t clash, then this will prove that prejudice is not natural […] If prejudice if race and color is natural, the ignorance then they to strive to place it away from human relations as a enemy to the peace, happiness […] if color is an offense, it is so, entirely apart from the manhood it envelope. There must be something in color of itself to kindle

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