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 - VII. Social Inequality - 28. The Basis of Social Inequality - 2. The One-Sidedness of the System of Segregation - 3. The Beginning in Slavery
<< 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.
Chapter 28. The Basis of Social Inequality 577
of the system of segregation is apparent also in the fact that the better
accommodations are always reserved for the white people.
The sanctions which enforce the rules of segregation and discrimination
also will be found to be one-sided in their application. They are applied by
the whites to the Negroes, never by the Negroes to the whites. Whites
occasionally apply them to other whites who go too far, but the latter are
felt to have already lost caste. The laws arc written upon the pretext of
equality but are applied only against the Negroes. The police and the
courts, as we have pointed out in preceding chapters, are active in enforcing
customs far outside those set down in legal statutes; the object of this
enforcement is the Negro. Threats, intimidations, and open violence are
additional sanctions, all directed against the Negroes and “nigger-loving”
casteless whites. And there are economic sanctions: most Negroes are
dependent for, their livelihood on the good-will of white employers and
white officials. The more perfectly the rules work, the less do the sanctions
need to be applied.
In the North, where the whole system of social segregation and dis-
crimination is kept suh rosa^ the sanctions of the law are ordinarily turned
the other way—to protect Negro equality. The Negroes in the North have,
for these and other reasons, a greater margin for assertiveness. The author
has observed that in the North, and particularly in New York’s Harlem, he
has occasionally been made to feel unwelcome in Negro restaurants. This
attitude, however, is even there an exception. The Negroes who have
attempted to “Jim Crow” me have explained their actions partly as revenge
and partly as the result of suspicion against the intentions of white people
who frequent Negro places. It has always disappeared and changed into
the greatest friendliness when I have disclosed myself as not being an
American^
A major part of this chapter will be devoted to an analysis of the popular
concepts, beliefs, and theories that are advanced by white people to
motivate this one-sided system of segregation and discrimination. But
before we proceed to this analysis, we shall have to return to the conditions
in the ante-bellum South. In the field of personal and social relations—as
in other fields of the Negro problem—what we are studying is in reality
the survivals in modern American society of the slavery institution. The
white Southerner is right when, in discussing every single phase of the
Negro problem, he constantly falls back in his arguments on the history of
the region.
3. The Beginning in Slavery
Inherent in slavery as a social arrangement was the principle that the
slave was inferior as a human being. He was allowed certain indulgences
but could claim nothing as a right or privilege. The paternalistic rule of the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
