I had once thought that the lack of self-reliance was a 20th century phenomenon among our black people, an incident of insidious urbanization! But, I was wrong! At least as early as 1853, Dr. James McCune Smith wrote in "Frederick Douglass ' Paper," the following editorial titled: "The Editor":
"In the transition state of colored-Americandom, the editor must be an amphibious animal, half orator, half editor; he must tear the fibers of his brain one way to adorn his columns for the inspection of the most fastidious and merciless newspaper critics in the world--I mean colored Americans; and then, he must tear the fibers of his brain another way, to coax, beg, or wheedle money enough out of chance audiences to print his paper and keep a coat on his back . Lord help him! For his faith must be of the kind which moves mountains if he rely upon the 'amour proper' of negrodom for his support. One of the bitterest evils slavery has imposed on our people, one of the safest defenses with which it hedges itself in, is the almost entire destruction of self-reliance and clannish-ness in our character ."
P.213, THE WORKS OF JAMES McCUNE SMITH : BLACK INTELLECTUAL AND ABOLITIONIST edited by John Stauffer (2007)
Friday, June 17, 2016
"THE EDITOR"
I had once thought that the lack of self-reliance was a 20th century phenomenon among our black people, an incident of insidious urbanization! But, I was wrong! At least as early as 1853, Dr. James McCune Smith wrote in "Frederick Douglass ' Paper," the following editorial titled: "The Editor":
"In the transition state of colored-Americandom, the editor must be an amphibious animal, half orator, half editor; he must tear the fibers of his brain one way to adorn his columns for the inspection of the most fastidious and merciless newspaper critics in the world--I mean colored Americans; and then, he must tear the fibers of his brain another way, to coax, beg, or wheedle money enough out of chance audiences to print his paper and keep a coat on his back . Lord help him! For his faith must be of the kind which moves mountains if he rely upon the 'amour proper' of negrodom for his support. One of the bitterest evils slavery has imposed on our people, one of the safest defenses with which it hedges itself in, is the almost entire destruction of self-reliance and clannish-ness in our character ."
P.213, THE WORKS OF JAMES McCUNE SMITH : BLACK INTELLECTUAL AND ABOLITIONIST edited by John Stauffer (2007)
