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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Social Inequality - 29. Patterns of Social Segregation and Discrimination - 2. Segregation and Discrimination in Interpersonal Relations
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Chapter 29. Social Segregation and Discrimination 61 i
those business interests which are shared (as when a white employer
instructs his Negro employee or when there is a matter to be discussed con-
cerning the welfare of the Negro community) or it should be polite but
formal inquiry into personal affairs (either a white or a Negro person may
inquire as to the state of the other’s health or business). There can gen-
erally be no serious discussion—although there can be the banter of polite
conversation or joking—about local or national politics, international rela-
tions, or ^^news,” on the one hand, or about items connected with the
course of daily life, such as the struggle for existence or the search for pleas-
ure, on the other hand. There are exceptions, of course. Some white women
use their Negro servants as sources of gossip and local news.
The conversation is even more regimented in form than in content. The
Negro is expected to address the white person by the title of ^^Mr.,” ^^Mrs.,”
or ^‘Miss.”^“ The old slavery title of ^^Master” disappeared during Recon-
struction entirely and was replaced by “Boss” or sometimes “Cap” or
“Cap’n.” From his side, the white man addresses the Negro by his first
name, no matter if they hardly know each other, or by the epithets “boy,”
“uncle,” “elder,” “aunty,” or the like, which are applied without regard to
age. If he wishes to show a little respect without going beyond the etiquette,
he uses the exaggerated titles of “doctor,” “lawyer,” “professor,” or other
occupational titles, even though the term is not properly applicable.® The
epithets “nigger” and “darky” are commonly used even in the presence
of Negroes, though it is usually well known that Negroes find them insult-
ing. That there has been a slight tendency for this pattern to break down
is shown by the use of the Negro’s last name without title in many recent
business relations. Too, a few salesmen will actually call Negroes by their
titles of “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” and “Miss” in order to gain them as customers.
Also significant is the fact that upper -and middle class whites in the
Upper South are beginning to call upper class Negroes by these titles.*’
In a small city I found the greatest difficulties in locating the principal of the Negro
high school, whom I wanted to see (let us call him Mr. Jim Smith), The white people I
asked had never heard about a Negro with that name and did not seem to know even where
the Negro high school was. When I finally found him and told him about the difficulties
I had met, he inquired: “Whom did you ask for?” I answered: “Mr. Jim Smith.” He laughed
and told me: “You should have asked for ‘Professor Smith^ or just for ‘Jim’—sure, every-
body knows me in this town.”
®They are more inclined to use the titles of “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” and “Miss” for Negroes in
private than in public. There is a deep and admittedly irrational aversion to using these
titles on the part of some upper class whites. An educated Negro in a Southern Negro univer-
sity was approached by an upper class white lady during the depression to ask for another
Negro by his first name (let us call him Sam) who had charge of dispensing emergency
relief for Negroes in the locality. Her interlocutor replied, “Sam who?” She did not know
his last name and said, “You know who I mean, the nigger who sits at this desk and gives
out the emergency relief. I want some relief for some of iny niggers.” Her interlocutor,
wanting to tease her, went on: “Do you mean Mr. So-and-so or Mr. So-and-so,” hoping to
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