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575
Chapter 28. The Basis of Social Inequality
2. The One-sidedness of the System of Segregation
I have heard few comments made so frequently and with so much
emphasis and so many illustrations as the one that ^^Negroes are happiest
among themselves” and that ^^Negroes really don’t want white company
but prefer to be among their own race.” Even sociologists, educators, and
interracial experts have informed me that, when the two groups keep
apart, the wish for separation is as pronounced among Negroes as among
whites.^ In the South, many liberals are eager to stress this assertion as
part of the justification for their unwillingness to give up the Southern
doctrine that the Negroes must not be allowed to aspire to “social equality.”
Southern conservatives will usually give a somewhat different twist to the
argument and actually insist that Negroes are perfectly satisfied with their
social status in the South. But the conservatives are more likely to con-
tradict themselves bluntly in the next sentence by asserting that in the back
of the Negro’s mind there is a keen desire to be “like white people” and to
“marry white girls.”
For the moment, we shall leave it an open question whether the whites
understand the Negroes correctly on this point. We shall start from the
evident fact that—quite independent of whether or not, to what extent,
and how the Negroes have accommodated themselves
—
social segregation
and discrimination is a system of deprivations forced upon the Negro group
by the white group. This is equally true in the North and in the South,
though in this respect, as in all others, there is more segregation and
discrimination in the South, and thus the phenomenon is easier to observe.
That segregation and discrimination are forced upon the Negroes by the
whites becomes apparent in the one-sidedness of their application. Negroes
are ordinarily never admitted to white churches in the South, but if a
strange white man enters a Negro church the visit is received as a great
honor. The guest will be ushered to a fronf seat or to the platform. The
service will often be interrupted, an announcement will be made that there
is a “white friend” present, and he will be asked to address the Negro audi-
ence, which will loudly testify its high appreciation. Likewise, a white
stranger will be received with utmost respect and cordiality in any Negro
school, and everything will be done to satisfy his every wish, whereas a
Negro under similar circumstances would be pushed off the grounds of a
white school. Whenever I have entered a Negro theater in the South, the
girl in the ticket office has regularly turned a bewildered face and told me
that “it is a colored movie.” But she has apparently done this because she
thought I was making a mistake and wanted to spare me embarrassment.
When I answered that I did not care, the ticket office girls usually sold the
ticket and received my visit as a courtesy. I have never been refused service
in a Negro restaurant in the South.
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