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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - X. The Negro Community - 44. Non-Institutional Aspects of the Negro Community - 2. Crime
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976 An American Dilemma
legal injustice and insecurity of life and property, prevents the Negro from
identifying himself with society and the law. Because the white man regards
him as apart from society, it is natural for a Negro to regard himself as
apart. He does not participate in making the laws in the South, and he has
little chance to enforce them. To the average lower class Negro, at least in
the South, the police, the courts, and even the law are arbitrary and hostile
to Negroes, and thus are to be avoided or fought against. The ever-present
hostility to the law and law-enforcement agencies on the part of all South-
ern Negroes and many Northern Negroes does not often manifest itself
in an outbreak against them because the risks are too great. But occasion-
ally this hostility does express itself, and then there is crime. The Negro
community tends to be sympathetic toward an individual Negro who
commits a crime against whites, since he is only expressing a hostility which
is felt generally. Sometimes the hostility toward the white community is
expressed In crimes against Negroes who turn traitor to their group and
work with the whites.®
The slavery tradition and the caste situation are also reflected in the low
regard for human life that characterizes lower class Southerners generally,
and especially Negroes. A slave’s life had only a money price, not a legal
or ethical price. After Emancipation, the use of violence to support the
caste system and the general Southern pattern of illegality maintained this
low regard for human life. Negroes have taken over the white man’s
attitude and have even exaggerated it. Assault and murder are relatively
more common among Negroes. Such crimes are rarely premeditated j
they
are the result of a moment’s anger when it is not inhibited by a developed
respect for life and law. The fact that the law is arbitrary, in the South,
further depreciates the value of a Negro’s life and property. For crimes
committed against other Negroes, Negro criminals often go unpunished
or are lightly punished, especially if they can get white men to act as
^^character” witnesses. Sometimes even a white man will not insist on having
a Negro who steals from him arrested, usually because he needs this Negro
as a worker.^*
Certain traits, present everywhere, but more developed in the Negro
as a consequence of his slavery background and his subordinate caste status,
have also been conducive to a high Negro crime rate. Sexual looseness,
weak family bonds, and poverty have made prostitution more common
among Negro women than among white women. Carelessness and idleness
have caused the Negro to be the source of a disproportionate amount of
accidental crimes and of vagrancy. Negroes also have a high record in crimes
connected with gambling and the use of liquor, although it is not certain
whether their record is higher than that of other lower class groups.
Social organization is generally at a low level among Southern Negroes,
• This includes ‘‘stool pigeons,’* “Uncle Toms” and petty racketeers looking for immunity.
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