Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/122

106 tions are often much improved in hybrids, when those hybrids are produced by the crossing of the lowest races with representatives of either sex in the higher. This, however, is extremely objectionable and, in the long run, dangerous.

In large parts of the United States, especially in the so-called "black belt," all these conditions, and various others which have been referred to in the previous chapters of this book, are in constant operation. In some of the regions in this belt the two races are about in equal numbers; in others the whites are more or less in excess of the negroes; while, finally, in other districts, the latter may far outnumber the former. Where the blacks are in proportion comparatively very few in numbers, the harm done to the higher race is comparatively insignificant, and the harm only increases in degree as they increase in numbers. So far as I have been able to discover, however, the crossing of the two races goes on wherever they are brought in contact for any length of time. Comparatively there are but few negroes in New York City, my present place of writing, and I know that the black wenches are constantly sought by white men of the various plains of society for carnal gratification. Lighter colored hybrids are produced and they are making their appearance in the population. The coarser negresses, as I have before said, are well pleased to have children by white men, and for reasons already given. If they chance to be good-looking, cleanly in habit, and not especially repulsive in any way, they make better arrangements, and if light colored, of fine parts and figures, regular features, sensuous and attractive, they are often selected by white