#259 YANKEES vis-a-vis- BLACKS -vis-a-vis INDIANS
We cannot find from swAmi vivEkAnanda‷s published letters, whether during his two stints in USA and Europe, had any time visited the ghettoes of blacks or spent a night with them. His opinion about blacks (he called them Negroes, as was the wont of those days) vis-a-vis whites and Indians can be traced from his Complete Works. See this letter swAmijI wrote to DIWANJI (Shri Haridas Viharidas Desai) from 541 DEARBORN AVENUE, in Nov. 1894. . . . If any man tries to move forward here, everybody is ready to help him. In India you may try tomorrow by writing a single line of praise for me in any of our papers (Hindu), and the next day they would be all against me. Why? It is the nature of slaves. They cannot suffer to see any one of their brethren putting his head the least above their rank. . . . Do you mean to compare such stuff with these children of liberty, self-help, and brotherly love? The nearest approach to our people are the freed slaves of the U.S.A., the Negroes. Why, in t