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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - XI. An American Dilemma - 45. America Again at the Crossroads in the Negro Problem - 1. The Negro Problem and the War - 2. Social Trends
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998 An American Dilemma
the changes so far during the War. On the basis of this knowledge, we can
discern the gamut of possibilities for the future. If, in addition, we have
some insight into the temper and inclination of the people who are both
the actors and the spectators of the drama being staged, we can estimate
which are the most probable developments.
2. Social Trends
Looking back over the ground we have mapped ’in our inquiry, we can
make two general observations. One is the following: What we usually call
social trends^^ have their main significance for the Negroes status because
of what is in white feofle^s minds. It is true, for instance, that the decreas-
ing relative demand for unskilled work, compared with skilled and semi-
skilled work, and the change of much dirty and heavy labor to clean and
easy labor, have dangerous implications for the Negro’s employment
opportunities. But if these technological and economic trends have disas-
trous effects on the Negro, the cause of this is the persistency with which
white people want to keep him out of skilled and pleasant work. It is also
true that the trend toward mass unemployment in America tends to turn
Negro labor into a relief burden. But, again, the concentration of unemploy-
ment upon the Negro people is explainable only as the direct and indirect
effects of discrimination. The restricted immigration of white Europeans
to America and other population changes are reversing the century-old
trend, in which the Negro was becoming a smaller portion of the total
population of the United States, into a trend in which the Negro is becom-
ing a slightly increasing proportion of the population. But if this change of
trend will disappoint some white Americans and perhaps tend to increase
racial friction, the cause is again race discrimination.
The second observation is this: The important changes in the Negro
froblem do not consist of, or have close relations withy ^^social trends^^ in
the narrower meaning of the term but are made uf of changes in feofle^s
beliefs and valuations. We started by stating the hypothesis that the Negro
problem has its existence In the American’s mind. There the decisive
struggle goes on. It is there that the changes occur. Our investigation has
amply confirmed our basic assumption, as an abbreviated summary of
some of our main findings regarding recent trends will demonstrate.
In the field of ^^sociaP^ relations we traced a slow but visible decrease of
discrimination in the South during recent decades up until the outbreak
of the present War. The racial etiquette was gradually loosening. White
people were beginning to take cognizance of distinctions in education and
class within the Negro community and becoming prepared to treat Negroes
somewhat differently according to their individual worth. The ‘^no social
equality” theory was not quite so rigid as in earlier generations. The entire
Jim Crow apparatus was maintained, but its motivation was no longer so
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