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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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6i6 An American Dilemma
of its performance from both Negro and white points of view. While such
a situation works hardships for individual Negroes—even to the extent of
causing them to become innocent victims of police or court punishment or
of mob violence—over a span of years it can be seen as a factor helping to
break down the etiquette and to raise the status of Negroes in the attitudes
of whites. Change from this source has occurred in the Border states to a
greater extent than in the rest of the South.
Another area of life in which the patterns of segregation and discrimina-
tion are put under a strain is that in which they come in conflict with
basically human inclinations. Negroes sometimes appear before whites in
situations which evolve feelings of pity and sympathy. The inclinations
of whites in these situations would be to help the Negroes were it not for
the informal etiquette and formal rules of segregation. Of course, one of
the effects of segregation and discrimination is to minimize the number of
situations in which Negroes in desperate need of help appear before whites.
Too, the etiquette is often so defined as to permit the white person to help
the Negro. For example, the mistress could always administer any sort
of bodily assistance to faithful servants who needed it without fear of violat-
ing the etiquette, whereas normally no white woman could touch a Negro
man. There have always been situations, however, in which suffering
Negroes have appeared before whites who were forbidden to help them
because of the etiquette or formal rules. It is probable that, with the grow-
ing impersonality of the employer-servant relation and with the increase in
the number of casual contacts, these situations are increasing in number.
In such situations, the etiquette or rule is sometimes violated, sometimes
not. We may cite illustrations of two types of these situations, where the
etiquette was not violated, in order to bring out more fully the nature of
the problem:
The other day I saw a good-looking, modest-appearing, well-dressed, but frail
colored woman with a child in her arms attempt to board a street-car. She was about
to fail. The conductor started to help her, then looked at the other passengers and
desisted. His face was a study. Prejudice wonj but it was a Pyrrhic victory.^^
When I was working as a truant officer I was bitten by a dog. I went to a private
piiysician. I had to go to the head of the welfare department (F.E.R.A.). The white
woman in charge was very nice. She was as nice as white people can be. She sent me
to the hospital. When I got there I had to wait a long time, and then I wsls sent to
a white intern. He took me in a little room on one side. It looked like a storeroom.
He told me to sit down and said that he wanted to look at my leg. My leg had a
bandage on it, and the tape was stuck to the skin. He started tearing the bandage off.
I asked him if he didn’t have some ether to loosen the bandage with, and he said
he didn’t have any and that he could get it off without getting any. I was in this
•mall room with the door shut. After he got the bandage off he refused to give me
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