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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Social Inequality - 29. Patterns of Social Segregation and Discrimination - 6. Segregation in Specific Types of Institutions
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Chapter 29. Social Segregation and Discrimination 637
the competition for customers made store managers inclined to change
their policy to greater compliance toward at least upper class Negroes/’^®
There are possibly significant differences in the segregation patterns found
for two distinct types of establishments—say, banks and department stores
—^but without detailed information we shall not risk saying that there
definitely are.
We may generalize thus far, however: for each community there would
seem to be less discrimination and segregation where the service is less
personal and requires least manifestation of personality. Barbershops and
beauty parlors will both in the North and in the South be most completely
segregated. Stores for clothing will discriminate more than hardware
stores. Gas stations will be least segregated j
both in the South and in the
North the rule is that the customer is to be served without regard to his
color, but often with some regard to the quality or make of his car.
Discrimination has many degrees: sometimes it will appear only in the
way in which customers are served. Clothing stores, for example, may
refuse to sell to Negroes, may have separate sections for them, may sell to
them as to whites but refuse to let them try on clothing, may let them try
on clothing if they keep the clothing from their bodies (for example,
cloth over head before trying on hat) or may not discriminate at all. As
a general conclusion, we can state that there is a good deal of difference
between the North and the South in the discrimination practices of com-
mercial establishments, but less here than in most other fields. The lack
of laws, the impersonal nature of the relationship, and the profits to be
made by commercial establishments if they cater to Negroes, all tend to
weaken the patterns in the South. The present author has observed cities
in the Deep South where the ordinary department store apparently discrim-
inates less than in the North.
The prohibitions and restrictions on the Negro in the use of privately
run establishments take two major directions: discrimination, and separate
establishments for Negroes. There are usually not enough persons or
wealth in the Negro community to provide Negroes with some of the more
expensive services that are available to whites. This is especially true of
theaters, concert halls, lecture halls and dance halls. When Negroes are
permitted to go to these in the South—and seldom are they permitted to
go to the best ones—they must occupy inferior sections, such as balconies.
Segregated sections—^whether of trains or of theaters—are commonly
frequented by white men who often come there to engage in activities
they would not dare to do in white sections (as, for instance, drinking or
playing cards). The Negro sections usually have inferior equipment and
are poorly cared for. In white stores where he may be served, the Negro
customer is handicapped by not being allowed to try on clothing, by not
being permitted to exchange any merchandise and by not beine given the
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