Was W.E.B. Du Bois spittin?
Source
I. A Forum of Fact and Opinion
Race Prejudice in Germany
When an American Negro says, “I have met no discrimination in account of race,” it is well for those of us who know to apply considerable doses of salt. For our people, in self-defense, have adopted a well-known protective mechanism: under given circumstances, we carefully ascertain where we are wanted or endured, and where we are insulted or debarred. Then we go only where we can, and of course suffer no discrimination. When, therefore, I say I have not suffered from race prejudice in Germany, this calls for explanation.
There is race prejudice in Germany, and a regular, planned propaganda to increase it and make it characteristic of the Third Reich. But it is not instinctive prejudice, except in the case of the Jews, and not altogether there. I mean that German prejudice is not the result of long belief, backed by child teaching, and outward insignia like color or hair. It is a reasoned prejudice, or an economic fear. Consequently, in the case of Negroes, it does not show itself readily. My friend used to say that she liked Paris, because she could start out without wondering where she would get lunch. So in Berlin or elsewhere in Germany: I can go to any hotel which I can afford; I can dine where I please and have the head-waiter bow me welcome. I can go to any theater and find the strange lady next to me bow pleasantly or pass a conventional word if necessary; I can join a sightseeing tour without comment, etc. In fine, I have complete civic freedom and public courtesy. Of course, if my appearance is pronounced, I shall be an object of curiosity and even excited attention: a black man in a small German city would be a matter of crowds and staring that might be very annoying; but he would not be insulted nor guyed; nor, least of all, would he be refused such accommodation or courtesy as he demanded.
On the other hand, in social lines, there are limits: I have been invited to dinner in German homes, and eaten with German women and men in restaurants. On the other hand, no German woman of good standing would think of marrying a Negro under ordinary circumstances; nor could she do so legally. It is a question if she could legally marry a Japanese. In public dance halls and in the half-world Negroes must be welcomed with care and secretly; police spies would quickly suppress any open commerce.
Anti-Semitism
In the case of Jews, one meets something different, which an American Negro does not readily understand. Prejudice against Jews in Germany comes nearer being instinctive than color prejudice. For many centuries Germans have disliked Jews. But the reasons have varied, and are not at all analogous to white dislike of blacks in America. Economic reasons, built on a foundation of religion and clan solidarity, are the real explanation. In the middle age strangers who did not believe in Christ were largely excluded from land-holding and work as artisans or shop-keepers, and found a way to make a living in the new commerce and money-lending. I have seen the old Juden-gasse in Frankfort, where the Rothschils [sic], Schiffs and other great capitalists were caged up of [sic] nights in narrow quarters, lest they contaminate the Christians; and where they laid the foundations of wealth and power, despite insult and oppression. As time went on, Jews became free and honored citizens of Germany, contributing to science and art, to finance and banking; still, while intermarrying now and then, excluded from the socially elect – the nobility, the high places in the army, the chief offices of state.
But, curiously enough, the chief indictment against the Jews at this time was not what they did, but that they would not intermarry with Germans and lose their identity in the German state. They thus became the objects of envy, fear, and hatred among the workers and less educated folk of the middle class. Waves of anti-semitism, accompanied by malicious slander, arose again and again in the 18th and nineteenth centuries.
In the World War Jews did their legal service, but they were not eager to serve in an army in which they could not act as officers. After the war, bankers, financiers and merchants had many opportunities to profiteer at the expense of the workers and middle class. Jews were prominent in such happenings because they were so largely represented in these callings. Their success in professions and in the competitive civil service brought all the envy and jealousy of the wretched to bear upon them, and Adolf Hitler, born to dislike of Jews, was the appropriate instrument for the undoing of the Jew in Germany.
In other words, the best revenge is success.
The quicker Black people separate from ignorance and follow the Jewish playbook, the faster we will achieve the same success.
Imagine if our ancestors monopolized our collective talents?
Our music, art, fashion, style, athletes, musicians, actors, etc.
What if we retained control of our culture and family structures and refused "integration" into "whiteness"?
Where would we be?