Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, July 1922 · page 33 of 67
Captain Billy's Whiz Bang #35 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page reprints Dr. Frank Crane's article criticizing racist ideology, using satire to expose its absurdity. The Whiz Bang—a satirical magazine—republishes Crane's argument against white supremacist justifications for racial hierarchy. Crane mocks the "white man's burden" concept and the biblical justification for Black oppression (the "curse of Ham"), calling both unconvincing rationalizations. He points out the contradiction in American ideals: the U.S. claimed to support self-determination (referencing Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points), yet denied this to African peoples. He also contrasts Africa's peaceful indigenous life with the disruption colonialism brought. The editorial's title—"The Ball is Mightier Than the Bullet"—suggests reason and debate (represented by a ball/sphere) defeat violence. The piece responds to a 1919 Harlem demonstration where Black Americans "stood up for their rights," presenting this as justified resistance rather than provocation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
32 Captain Billy's Whiz Bang Whiz Bang Editorials “The Bull is Mightier Than the Bullet.” It is not often that I have time to care for the spring plowing and read high-brow magazines at the same time, but the other evening my neighbor called attention to an article in the Current Opinion magazine writ- ten by Dr. Frank Crane. This editorial was labeled “Negroes” and without permission of the learned doctor the Whiz Bang hereby re- prints a portion of his writing— The negroes last summer held a grand demonstration in New York and gave symptoms of standing up for their rights. For some reason he has always carried the white man’s burden. For the white man is superior. He him- self admits it. White men have even circulated the story of Ham, son of Noah, that he made fun of his father who had got drunk and kicked off the covers. That may not have been nice of Ham, but it was hardly serious enough to warrant cursing his posterity for thousands of years. The negroes once lived in Africa, a large continent containing a fifth or sixth of the earth’s area. There, according to the 14 points, they ought to have had some say as to how they were to be governed. In their native land the negroes lived at peace in the bosom of their families, under their palm trees, and played around in a costume which was much more