Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - II. Race - 4. Racial Beliefs - 7. Beliefs with a Purpose - 8. Specific Rationalization Needs
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
lo6 An American Dilemma
been observed that the ordinary white American gets disturbed when
encountering the new scientific estimates that the great majority of Amer-
ican Negroes are not of pure African descent. Similarly, the ordinary white
American is disturbed when he hears that Negroes sometimes pass for
white. He wants, and he must wr.nt, to keep biological distance.
But the mulatto is a disturbance to the popular race theory not only
because of his numbers. The question is also raised: Is the mulatto a
deteriorated or an improved Negro? In fact, there seems never to have
been popular agreement among white Americans whether the mulatto is
worse than the pure bred Negro, or whether he is better because of his
partially white ancestry. The former belief should fer se strengthen the
anti-amalgamation doctrine, in fact, make adherence to it to the interest
of the entire society. The second belief can serve a purpose of explaining
away Negro accomplishments which are, with few exceptions, made by
mulattoes and which then could be ascribed to the white blood.®^ Actually,
I have often heard the same man use both arguments.
8. Specific Rationalization Needs
When analyzing the actual beliefs, we must take account of much more
specific needs for rationalization. Specific beliefs seem to have specific
rationalization purposes besides the general one of justifying the caste order
as a whole. Practically every type of white-Negro relation, every type of
discrimination behavior, every type of interracial policy, raises its own
peculiar demands for justification. And practically every special Negro
characteristic, actual or only presumed, opens the possibility of meeting one
or more of these special demands.
The specific demands are embraced in the general one, in the same way
as the caste order consists after all of the aggregate of a great number of
specific discriminations and disabilities. Some of the beliefs are directly
connected with a purpose of rationalizing a particular phase of the caste
order. Others are only indirectly connected with such a specific purpose.
The connection is sometimes obvious, as when a certain belief is regularly
brought forward as a reason for a certain item of the caste order. Some-
times the connection is less apparent to the observer j
we shall even have
to expect that at times it will be hidden from both the consciousness of the
believer and the superficial observation of the investigator. The following
exemplifications in most cases indicate only those direct connections between
beliefs and specific purposes which are more apparent. All the beliefs to be
mentioned have been scientifically disproved, as we shall find in the next
two chapters.
The beliefs that Negroes get sleepy when working with machines and
that they, on the whole, lack mechanical aptitudes, serve a need for justi-
fication of their being kept out of industry. The beliefs of their general
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
