Page:The Relations of the Advanced and the Backward Races of Mankind.djvu/35

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Backward Races of Mankind
29

Slave States of North America, where seven millions of negroes and fourteen millions of whites dwell together; in Algeria, in British South Africa, and in Western South America, in both of which latter regions the numerical preponderance of the Backward races is very great, though for South America no trustworthy statistics exist.

To whichever of these categories the contact of races refusing to blend belongs, such contact is calculated to give trouble, and the more frequently individual members of the races come across one another, the greater is that trouble likely to be. Where the two races occupy different parts of the country, or where one is mainly rural, the other mainly urban, or where the habits of life are so dissimilar that opportunities for social intercourse occur but sparingly, occasions for collision may be few. This has been the case over most of Spanish America, and is to a great extent true also of Algeria. But where the races live in the same towns and villages, and follow the same pursuits, antagonism is sure to arise. It arises from Inequality, because as one of the races is stronger in intelligence and will, its average members treat members of the weaker race scornfully or roughly, when they can do so with impunity. It arises from Dissimilarity of character, because neither race understands the other's way of thinking and feeling, so that each gives offence even without meaning it. It arises from Distrust, because the sense of not comprehending one another makes each suspect the other of faithlessness or guile. The Backward race, being the weaker, is