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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - VII. Social Inequality - 29. Patterns of Social Segregation and Discrimination - 2. Segregation and Discrimination in Interpersonal Relations
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Chapter 29. Social Segregation and Discrimination 609
to the contrary, eating in the South when only white people are present
is generally an even simpler afFair than in the North. But in interracial
relations eating together has been infused with a tremendous social signif-
icance. ^^In the South, the table, simple though its fare may be,” explains
a Southerner, ‘^possesses the sanctity of an intimate social institution. To
break bread together involves^ or may involvey everythin And, of
course, even the less ritualized American eating is, in a degree, an equal-
itarian activity; persons are forced to exhibit equal susceptibility to
physiological needs, and if they are to sit facing each other for half an
hour or so, they are inevitably thrown into social conversation.
For whites and Negroes to eat together would call forth serious con-
demnation in the South. It is apparent—^and well in accord with our hypoth- •
esis—that if a Negro man and a white woman should eat together, the
matter would be even more serious. There are, however, occasions even
in the South when upper class Negroes participate in interracial confer-
ences—including the purely business or professional conferences—where
eating takes place. In such cases the Negro participants are sometimes
served in separate rooms or at separate tables in the same room. Even if
there is only one Negro present and the conference is in a private home,
the rule is that he must be served at a separate table. Liberal white educa-
tors visiting Negro colleges sometimes take part in common meals, and
they will not always be served at a separate table. Through this interracial
activity, on a high level of social and cultural respectability, the eating
taboo is slowly being broken down. People in the South generally know
that such things are happening, and they are not as excited about it as they
would have been a generation ago. In the case of eating incidental to the
ordinary routines of life—such as in factory lunch rooms—Negroes regu-
larly eat in separate rooms or have to wait until the whites have finished.
Drinking is apparently less of an issue than eating. It is not considered
quite so intimate since it requires less time, and it does not demand that
participants sit down. At any rate, it would seem to be slightly less taboo
for Negroes and whites to drink together than to eat together. For a
white woman to take part in an interracial drinking party would, however,
be worse even than eating with Negroes and it practically never occurs.
In the North, the taboo against interracial eating and drinking is weak:
Negroes and whites will often be found eating together in restaurants,
conferences and factory lunchrooms. Negro servants are practically never
invited to eat at the same table with their white employers, but this Is
only slightly less true of white servants. In some Northern milieus it does
seem to be considered objectionable for whites to invite Negroes to their
houses for social gatherings, but the few occurrences seldom result in any
reaction more violent than gossip.^®
Next in order in degree of intimacy and in degree of reaction aroused
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