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Chapter 28. The Basis of Social Inequality 585
not advocate complete segregation and would permit immediate social
equality to some Negroes in their relations to some whites (at the same
time he would want to restrict equality for some whites). Further, he
would look forward to a time when segregation would be wiped out, and
full equality permitted.® As this is not the attitude of most whites, we have
an indication that those beliefs fundamentally are rationalizations of valua-
tions.
It would, indeed, be possible to defend the caste order simply by arguing
that it is in the white people’s interests to keep the Negroes subordinate.
Such a defense would be logically tight. It could not be challenged as an
unscientific belief. Unlike the rationalizations mentioned in previous para-
graphs, it need not look forward to an ultimate social equality as ideal.
It differs from the other beliefs we have been considering also in that it
demands discrimination primarily and segregation only incidentally.^®
The remarkable thing, however, is that, in Americay
social segregation and
discrimination will practically never be motivated in this straightforward
way as being in white people^s interests. Indeed, to judge from the discus-
sion in all social classes of whites, and this is particularly true of the South,
one is led to believe that such base and materialistic considerations never
enter into their thoughts. The nearest approach one hears is oblique state-
ments of the type: ^‘This is a white man’s country,” or: “We’ve got to
make these niggers work for us.” Otherwise the matter is only touched
by some liberal reformers who, interestingly enough, always try to prove
to the whites that it is “in white people’s own interest” to do away with this
or that injustice against Negroes. I have become convinced that actually
the interest motivation seldom explicitly and consciously enters the ordinary
white man’s mind. It is suppressed, as being in flagrant conflict with the
American Creed and the Christian religion. But it is equally clear that most
white people actually take good care of their interests and practice dis-
crimination even when it is not required for segregation, and that segrega-
tion most often has the “function” of allowing a discrimination held
advantageous to the whites.
Again a partial allegiance to the American Creed must be noted. Thomas
P. Bailey talked about “the dissociation of a sectional personality.”^^ The
conflict between moral principles and actual conduct has its locus within
persons j
for this reason it will not be represented clearly in public discus-
sion. The interests will have a part in setting the patterns of behavior and
will give the emotional energy for the search for all the rationalizing
beliefe we have mentioned. The Creed not only will prevent the interests
from being explicitly mentioned and, indeed, from being consciously
* Even if one felt that the Negro was repugnant in his physical appearance to some white
men, scientific knowledge could reveal to him that antipathies of this sort could be removed,
and new ones avoided.
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