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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 17. The Mechanics of Economic Discrimination as a Practical Problem - 8. In the South
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Chapter 17. A Practical Problem 395
and unconcernedness is Important in the South, too. Many white Southern-
ers would undoubtedly give their backing to positive measure to preserve
a place for the Negro if they knew more accurately about his plight and
about the unfavorable trends. But there is In the South an entrenched and
widespread popular theory that the Negro should be held down in his
^^place.” Discrimination In justice, politics, education, and public service
creates an atmosphere in which economic discrimination becomes natural
or even necessary in order to prevent ^^social equality.”
On the other hand, there are, in the South, many people in the white
upper class who feel, as a matter of tradition, that the whites should ^
4ook
out for” and ^^take care of” their Negroes. As there are fewer and fewer
personal ties between upper class whites and Negroes and the isolation
between the two groups is growing,® this factor is becoming less and less
important as a protection of Negro employment opportunities.
The mere fact that there are many more Negroes in the South makes
them less strange to white people. The white Southerner does not react so
much, and for such flimsy reasons, as many Northerners do, to having
Negroes around. The employers have more experience with Negro labor
and are often not so prejudiced against using it. The fact that they are
seldom prepared to treat Negro and white workers on a basis of equality
often makes it easy for them to employ Negro workers without having
any “trouble.” The workers are more accustomed in many trades to work
with Negroes.
The Negroes have also had a sort of protection in the traditional “Negro
jobs.” These job monopolies, however, have been largely in stagnating
occupations and trades. As we have seen, white workers have always been
pressing against these job monopolies. Job exclusion in all desirable and
most undesirable jobs has, on the whole, been steadily progressing. The
Negro’s prospects in Southern Industry are not promising. The very fact
that there are so many more Negroes working there already means that
the possibilities for expansion of Negro employment are slighter than they
are in the North. The high natural increase of the white population in the
South, and the likelihood that many white farmers will be pushed out of
Southern agriculture, means that the white pressure to exclude Negroes
from jobs will be strong even if there should be considerable industrial
expansion.
Particularly in the South the concentration of Negro workers in the
unskilled jobs is dangerous for their future employment, as mechanization
means a constantly decreased demand for unskilled labor.** Unskilled labor
itself is changing character. Modern technical development means that
formerly unpleasant jobs are becoming “suitable” for white workers. The
* See Chapter 30, Section a.
^See Chapter 13, Section 8.
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