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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 38. Negro Popular Theories - 2. Negro Provincialism
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Chapter 38. Negro Popular Theories 785
The national budget and its short-range and long-range balancing, the
principles of taxation, monetary policy, and banking, have no sensible
meaning in the Negro world, except perhaps in terms of unemployment
relief. The World War becomes translated into the administrative details
concerning the extent to which Negroes will be kept from working in
defense industries and from service in the armed forces. Being denied
full fellowship by white America, the identification with the nation is
somewhat uncertain and blurred by a constant reminder of color. Africa
gets the American Negroes’ loyalty to nation, besides the United States.
Thus the Negroes . . must perpetually discuss the ^Negro Problem,’
—must live, move, and have their being in it, and interpret all else in
its light or darkness,” Du Bois complains.® And Ralph Bunche observes:
. . . when the Negro views any matter of broad governmental policy, he ordinarily
weighs it not as an American citizen, but as a Negro American. His first queries will
always be: “How will it effect ‘Negroes’?” “Will it be so administered as to embrace
Negroes fairly?” “What safeguards are taken to insure equal Negro participation in
its benefits? ” In other words, the Negro has learned from bitter experience that he
must constantly be on the alert to hold his own in the society. . . . Thus there is a
constant conflict between the Negro’s . . . desire to be a full-fledged American citizen
. . . and the necessity forced upon him by tradition and sentiment in the country,
to “think Negro” first.**
The American caste situation being what it is, there should be nothing
astonishing in the provincialism of the Negroes in their thinking or in
their fixation on white opinions. The Negroes can even be said to act in
a practical and rational way when they concentrate their efforts on their
own worries and press their own local and national interests. It is also—from
their point of view—only a matter of prudence if they feel inclined to
view the white Americans’ international ambitions and allegiances with
skepticism and reserve. The Negro caste is, in a sense, “a nation within a
nation,” and an oppressed and exploited nation at that. It prays to become
assimilated, but this is not permitted. It is thus understandable and, in
some respects and some degree, even necessary that the Negroes fortify
their souls with a dose of black chauvinism.
But all this does not make a half-truth into a truth. It does not wipe
out the distorting effects of huge gaps in knowledge and interests. Negro
provincialism damages the efficiency of the Negroes’ own struggle for a
larger share. But it cannot be helped, since it is rooted in caste. A balanced
and integrated world view is denied American Negroes, together with
many other good things in our social life. They will not be able to emerge
completely from instability, provincialism, and distortion of opinions until
that time in the future when American society itself Is eventually delivered
from caste.
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