do nothing with us

Вчера исполнилось 124 года со дня смерти Фредерика Дугласа - бывшего раба, аболициониста, политического деятеля писателя, оратора. День рождения его нам неизвестен, т.к. он родился в рабстве.

Вот цитата из него:

Everybody has asked the question, and they learned to ask it early of the abolitionists, ‘What shall we do with the Negro?’ I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us.
Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! … And if the negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone! If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don't disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot box, let him alone, don't disturb him! If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone, — your interference is doing him positive injury.

К сожалению, и к сегодняшнему дню этому совету - равно относящемуся к людям всех рас - практически никто не следует.