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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Social Inequality - 28. The Basis of Social Inequality - 9. Social Segregation and Discrimination in the North
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6oo An American Dilemma
steady development toward less social discrimination during the era of the
New Deal. But quite apart from these uncertain fluctuations during the
last couple of decades, it is obviously a gross exaggeration when it is
asserted that the North is getting to be "like the South.”
Even in the realm of social relations it is of importance that the average
Northerner does not think of the Negroes as former slaves. He has not
the possessive feeling for them and he does not regard their subservience
as a mark of his own social status. He is, therefore, likely to let the Negroes
alone unless in his opinion they get to be a nuisance. Upon the ideological
plane the ordinary Northerner is, further, apparently conscious that social
discrimination is wrong and against the American Creed, while the average
Southerner tries to convince himself and the nation that it is right or, in
any case, that it is necessary. The white newspapers in the North ordinarily
ignore the Negroes and their problems entirely—most of the time more
completely than the liberal Southern press. But when they have to come
out in the open on the Negro problem, they usually stand for equality.
Back of this official attitude, of course, is the fact that most Northerners
are not in direct contact with Negroes. The patterns of social discrimination
in the South have originally formed themselves as rural ways of life. In
the North the rural sections are, and have always been, practically free of
Negroes. Even in the big cities in the North, where there are substantial
Negro populations, only a small part of the white population has more
contacts with Negroes.
Lacking ideological sanction and developing directly contrary to the
openly accepted equalitarian Creed, social segregation and discrimination
m the North have to keep sub rosa. The observer finds that in the North
there is actudly much unmjoareness on the ’piirt of white people of the
extent of social discrimination against Negroes, It has been a common
experience of this writer to witness how white Northerners are surprised
and shocked when they hear about such things, and how they are moved
to feel that something ought to be done to stop it. They often do not
understand correctly even the implications of their own behavior and
often tell the interviewer that they "have never thought of it in that light.”
This innocence is, of course, opportunistic in a degree, but it is, neverthe-
less, real and honest too. It denotes the absence of an explicit theory and
an intentional policy. In this situation one of the main difficulties for the
Negroes in the North is simply lack of publicity. It is convenient for the
Northerners’ good conscience to forget about the Negro.
In so far as the Negroes can get their claims voiced in the press and in
legislatures, and are able to put political strength behind them, they are
free to press for state action against social discrimination. The chances are
that they will meet no open opposition. The legislatures will practically
never go the other way and attempt to Jim Crow the Negroes by statutes.
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