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Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Approach - 2. Encountering the Negro Problem - 3. Explaining the Problem Away
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Chapter 2. Encountering the Negro Problem 31
Apart from the few intellectuals of pronounced liberal leanings, however,
statements to the effect that there really is no Negro problem have become
part of the common stock of stereotyped opinions in the South, and they
are not entirely absent from the North. But such statements cover a
volcanic ground of doubt, disagreement, concern, and even anxiety—of
moral tension and need for escape and defense. To furnish such a covering
is, from a psychological point of view, their very ^Tunction.” The
prevalence of such opinions and the intensity with which they are expressed
might serve as an index of the latent interracial tension felt in the white
world.
The usefulness of this escape rationalization has a limit, however. The
limit is reached when overt interracial struggles appear. The notion of ‘‘no
Negro problem” is then suddenly transformed into an alarming awareness
that the contrary is so. This contrary reaction can be invoked experimen-
tally, simply by directing attention to the potentialities of conflict. Particu-
larly when talking to people among the poorer classes of whites with less
intellectual control over, their thoughts and feelings, the writer has
repeatedly observed the most flagrant contradictions on this point, some-
times appearing within the same sentence. A white Southerner can defend,
for instance, the suppression of the Negroes by saying that they are satis-
fied with their status and lack a desire for change. Without any intermediate
remarks, he can then proceed to explain that suppression is necessary, that
Negroes must be kept down by all means, and that Negroes have an ineradi-
cable craving to be like white people. Attempts on the part of the inter-
locutor to draw attention to the contradiction have seldom succeeded.
Some light might be thrown on this state of mind of many American
whites by observing the different state of mind of the Negroes. The
Negroes cannot, of course, feel an equivalent need for this special type of
self-defense, that there is “no Negro problem,” which in the white world
is a defense against one^s ow’n thoughts and feelings and the opinions of
other whites. Actually, it often happened that the writer was told by
Negroes in the South that race relations in their part of the country offered
no particular difficulties and were not much of a problem. White people
present at such pronouncements took great pleasure in the corroboration of
their own statements. It would seem that such statements from Negro
leaders are part of the moral tribute expected from those leaders at all
public interracial afFairs, such as school festivals, programs of entertain-
ment centered around Negro singers, interchurch meetings, and other
occasions where white representatives are present. That the Negroes should
be allowed to voice complaints, even though only in a cautious tone, con-
stituted the radical departure in the innovation of interracial commissions
after the First World War. Their meetings are between the “best people
of the two races,” and are typically not open to the general public.
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