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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 36. The Protest Motive and Negro Personality - 4. Negro Sensitiveness
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Chapter 36. Protest Motive and Negro Personality 761
4. Negro Sensitiveness
The upper classes are in many ways better protected, but they feel humil-
iations more intensively. It requires hard and continuous struggle to over-
come the effects of the deprivations and humiliations. The intensity of this
struggle is suggested by the fact that often a small personal incident has
the power suddenly to infuriate even those Negroes who pretend that they
are not ^^race men.” They feel overwhelmed by the discriminations and
the prejudice. This is what is called Negro “sensitiveness.”®
Referring to the South, Charles S. Johnson gives the following interest-
ing analysis of why upper class Negroes are more sensitive:
The greater sensitivity of the upper-class Negro to racial discrimination is attribut-
able to two factors: (i) his greater familiarity with political and social thought, and
( 2 ) the contradiction between his personal achievements and his social position. The
upper-class Negro is more aware of the regional variations in racial prejudice. He
sees the race system of the South as a local phenomenon, while the less educated Negro
is apt to regard white domination as part of the order of the universe. The upper-
class Negro also feels himself entitled by training and ability to achieve a high social
position in the community—a position denied by reason of race alone.**
Much of the Negro sensitiveness is centered around the word “Negro”
and its several synonyms. Even the lower class Negro in the rural South
feels insulted when he is called a “nigger” by a white man. The word is
hated because it symbolizes what prejudiced white people think of Negroes.
It is often used, however, between Negroes of all classes not only as an
insult but often in friendly joking. But it is insulting if it is used by a white
person. In Chapter 29 we have discussed other names and modes of address
to which Negroes are sensitive. All these words suggest to Negroes that the
white man who uses them regards Negroes as inferior, and in the South
white men who use them usually do have this attitude and express it inten-
tionally in the words. The large number of these words and special ways
of addressing Negroes indicate why Negroes have much to be “sensitive”
about.
Indeed, the entire racial “etiquette” and system of segregation in the
South are taken as insults by the Negro. At every hand the Southern white
man has given the Negro much to be sensitive about. The mere assumption
by the Southerner that his deprecation of the Negro is not taken as an
insult helps to make the Negro sensitive. Ray Stannard Baker tells of the
following occurrence;
1 was lunching with several fine Southern men, and they talked, as usual, with the
greatest freedom in the full hearing of the Negro waiters. Somehow, 1 could not help
watching to see if the Negroes took any notice of what was said. I wondered if
thev were sensitive. Finally, 1 put the question to one of my friends: “Oh.” he said.
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