Eugene V. Debs destroys a racist

[HEAD ICE]

I was reading through the MIA of Eugene Debs' material, and I came across this brilliant piece where he explodes a racist to smithereens. It is amazing how radical the man was, especially in 1904! Hell, I'd hold that these views are radical even amongst the left in 2010. This is the letter Eugene received



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Elgin, Ill., November 25, 1903.
Mr. Debs:
Elgin Sir, I am a constant reader of the International Socialist Review. I have analyzed your last article on the Negro question with apprehension and fear. you say that the South is permeated with the race prejudice of the Negro more than the North. I say it is not so. When it comes right down to a test, the North is more fierce in the race prejudice of the Negro than the South ever has been or ever will be. I tell you, you will jeopardize the best interests of the Socialist Party if you insist on political equality of the Negro. For that will not only mean politial equality but also social equality eventually. I do not believe you realize what that means. You get social and political equality for the Negro, then let him come and ask the hand of your daughter in marriage, “For that seems to be the height of his ambition,” and we will see whether you still have a hankering for social and political equality for the Negro. For I tell you, the Negro will not be satisfied with equality with reservation. It is impossible for the Anglo-Saxon and the African to live on equal terms. You try it, and he will pull you down to his level. Mr. Lincoln, himself, said, that “There is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I believe will forever forbid them living together on terms of social and political equality.” If the Socialist leaders stoop to this method to gain votes, then their policy and doctrine is as rotten and degraded as that of the Republican and Democratic parties, and I tell you, if the resolutions are adopted to give the African equality with the Anglo-Saxon you will lose more votes than you now think. I for my part shall do all I can to make you lose as many as possible and there will be others. For don’t you know that just a little sour dough will spoil the whole batch of bread. You will do the Negro a greater favor by leaving him where he is. You elevate and educate him, adn you will make his position impossible in the U.S.A. Mr. Debs, if you have any doubt on this subject, I beg you for humanity’s sake to read Mr. Thomas Dixon’s “The Leopard’s Spots” and I hope that all others who have voiced your sentiments heretofore, will do the same.
I assure you, I shall watch the International Socialist Review with the most intense hope of a reply after you have read Mr. Thomas Dixon’s message to humanity.
Respectfully yours,
So far a staunch member of the
Socialist Party


this is his response
http://www.marxists.org/archive/debs/works/1904/negronemesis.htm

[Sir Comradical]

"Foolish and vain indeed is the workingman who makes the color of his skin the stepping-stone to his imaginary superiority. The trouble is with his head, and if he can get that right he will find that what ails him is not superiority but inferiority, and that he, as well as the Negro he despises, is the victim of wage-slavery, which robs him of what he produces and keeps both him and the Negro tied down to the dead level of ignorance and degradation."

QFT !

[Sir Comradical]

"How does the Anglo-Saxon get along with the Anglo-Saxon—leaving the Negro entirely out of the question? Do they bill and coo and love and caress each other? Is the Anglo-Saxon capitalist so devoted to his Anglo-Saxon wage-slave that he shares his burden and makes him the equal partner of his wealth and joy?"

This is lol.

"The black man was stolen from his native land, from his wife and child, brought to these shores and made a slave. He was chained and whipped and robbed by his “white superior,” while the son of his “superior” raped the black child before his eyes. For centuries he was kept in ignorance and debased and debauched by the white man’s law."

Well said.