Quicksand
about you. You say you don‘t intend to live here. Don‘t you ever intend to marry, Helga?“
”Some day, perhaps. I don‘t know. Marriage—that means children, to me. And why add more suffering to the world? Why add any more unwanted, tortured Negroes to America? Why do Negroes have children? Surely it must be sinful. Think of the awfulness of being responsible for the giving of life to creatures doomed to endure such wounds to the flesh, such wounds to the spirit, as Negroes have to endure.”
James was aghast. He forgot to be embarrassed. “But Helga! Good heavens! Don‘t you see that if we—I mean people like us—don‘t have children, the others will still have. That‘s one of the things that‘s the matter with us. The race is sterile at the top, Few, very few Negroes of the better class have children, and each generation has to wrestle again with the obstacles of the preceding ones, lack of money, education, and background. I feel very strongly
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