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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Introduction - 5. Some Further Notes on the Scope and Direction of this Study - 6. A Warning to the Reader
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Iviii Introduction
parts of it, but would make the text clumsy if they were to be inserted in It.
Those marked by numbers are placed at the end of the bookj they are
mainly for scholars who wish concrete evidence of sources, but we believe
the general reader will wish to skim over them. Our classification is sub-
jective and does not rigidly follow any rules.
6. A Warning to the Reader
Before embarking upon the study, the simple old reminder should be
repeated that no person or culture can be judged solely by its imperfections.
The subject of this book—^American attitudes and actions with respect to
the Negro and the disparity between American ideals and behavior in this
field—forces us to dig in dark corners and to wash dirty linen in public.
But we wish to warn the reader that we do not, and he should not, regard
our analysis as a complete evaluation of America.
As interests in social studies are often concentrated on problem groups
and areas, a delusion is easily created that the situation in America is worse
than it actually is. ‘^Moral statistics” consist traditionally of a recording of
all the negative items in a culture: crime, illegitimacy, suicide and so on.
This tradition has arisen because data for abnormalities are available. Figure?
on divorces have been calculated in all countries—and, of course, America
ranks among the highest—^but there has never been any comprehensive
enumeration of the happy marriages. There are statistics on crime—and they
are ugly for America—^but none on civil decency. The method of measuring
moral levels by statistics and descriptions of what is extremely bad and
wrong in a society is thus heavily loaded against a nation with a particularly
wide range of moral behavior. This is a fact not always taken into account
even by the American specialists on the evils and the wrongs of society.
In setting out upon investigating a subject matter, which is bound to deal
for the most part with various forms of social pathology in America, the
autnor must stress that, in his opinion, large groups of the American popu-
lation probably live a more ‘Righteous” life, measured by whatever
standard one chooses, than any large group of people anywhere else in
the Western world. Even in the large cities with a shocking amount of
political corruption, crime, and vice, by far the greater part of the popula-
tion has no more contact with these phenomena than if they lived in another
country. The moral latitude is so very wide in America: if there is abnor-
mally much that is very hady there is also unusually much that is extremely
Thus a study of America centered upon the Negro problem must not
be expected to give a comprehensive and balanced cultural analysis of the
nation any more than would a study centered on crime or political corrup-
tion. Under a broader perspective the Negro is only a corner—although a
fairly big one—of American civilization. This corner is one of the least
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