Darkwater Voices from within the Veil. By W. E. Burghardt
Du Bois. (Constable. 10s. 6d. net).—This very able and pathetic book is the protest of a highly educated American negro against the colour-line not only in his own country, but also in the world at large. He resents the setting up of distinctions based on the colour of a man's skin, and declares that it is a modern prejudice. He describes in impassioned language the wrongs of the negroes in America, and denounces the recent racial riots in East St. Louis. But he is equally hard upon Europe, and does not scruple to regard the war as a struggle for the right to exploit the black races of Africa. He would have us establish negro states in the ex-German colonies, with edu- cated American negroes as expert advisers. Mr. Du Bois does- not give Great Britain credit for sincerity in her traditional policy of governing native protectorates through the chiefs as far as possible. In an outburst of passion he threatens the white race with a hostile combination of black and brown and yellow. But it would be a mistake to attach importance to such occasional passages in a book which is otherwise rational enough. Mr. Du Bois, who expresses himself no less forcibly in verse than in prose, is, as he admits, a very sensitive man, and the thought of the personal slights inflicted on negroes infuriates him. He is inclined to despise his own people for taking up domestic service, though for our part we cannot see why women's work in a household should be regarded as dishonourable—unless it is badly done. Mr. Du Bois sketches his own career in his opening chapter. He is now the director of the American Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.
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