Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/15

Rh The bringing of the negro to our shores requires no special comment other than what I have given in its proper place in the body of the work, beyond inviting the attention of the reader to the fact which I desire to lay especial stress upon here as in all other places where the opportunity presents itself, and that is, the taking of Africans out of Africa and settling them in this country by no means makes Americans of them. It would be quite as reasonable to expect zebras to turn into horses when similarly transported. Nature cares not a straw for human laws and politics, and the passing of a race into any new political area makes not another race of it. Profound and comparatively rapid changes can be effected only through crossing with other races and this is what is happening, in the case of the African in the United States as I have elsewhere abundantly pointed out. It is, therefore, only to the hybrids thus produced that the recently much used appellation of "Afro-American" can be truthfully applied. The unmixed African in this country is just as much of a negro today as his ancestors were before him in Africa. He simply stands upon our soil, in every such individual case, as a potential ethnic factor ready at any and at all times to Ido his share in debasing the blood of the white race in America. There is no greater danger assailing American civilization than this,— there can be no greater danger than anything which will effect the degradation of a race, and it is the presence of this danger which has impelled me to write this book. I desire to add my voice to the voices of others who have pointed out this danger before and doubtless more potently than I have here, as well as to lend