War & Peace Quote by Major Taylor

Major Taylor isn’t dressing prejudice up as an abstract social ill; he’s naming it as an opponent that forces Black athletes to race two events at once. “Extra battle” is the key phrase. The track is supposed to be a clean contest of legs, lungs, and tactics, yet Taylor’s line insists the real course includes an added, uglier terrain: venues that barred him, rivals who sabotaged him, crowds that jeered, promoters who profited off his fame while treating his presence as a provocation. He frames racism as a “dreadful monster,” a vivid choice from someone whose job required discipline, not metaphor. That image matters because it captures how prejudice feels in practice: not a misunderstanding to be corrected, but a heavy, irrational force that keeps reappearing, no matter how fast you are.

The intent is both warning and record-keeping. Taylor is speaking to the future tense - “There will always be” - with the weary clarity of someone who’s already proven excellence doesn’t automatically purchase safety or respect. The subtext is brutal: merit won’t save you. Victory might even intensify the backlash, because success from the wrong body is treated as a threat to the social order.

Context sharpens the line. Taylor was a global cycling star in the Jim Crow era, celebrated abroad and targeted at home. His sentence reads like an athlete’s scouting report on America: the competition is never just the competition.