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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 - 3. The Decay of the Caste Theory - 4. Negroes in the War Crisis
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1004 An American Dilemma
groups, Negroes are beginning to form a selfconscious ‘^nation within the
nation,” defining ever more clearly their fundamental grievances against
white America.
America can never more regard its Negroes as a fatienty submissive
minority. Negroes will continually become less well "accommodated.”
They will organize for defense and offense. They will be more and more^
vociferous. They will watch their opportunities ever more keenly. They
will have a powerful tool in the caste struggle against white America: the
glorious American ideals of democracy, liberty, and equality to which
America is pledged not only by its political Constitution but also by the
sincere devotion of its citizens. The Negroes are a minority, and they are
poor and suppressed, but they have the advantage that they can fight
wholeheartedly. The whites have all the power, but they are split in their
moral personality. Their better selves are with the insurgents. The Negroes
do not need any other allies.
This moral process had proceeded far when the Second World War
broke out
4. Nforoes in the War Crisis
This War is an ideological war fought in defense of democracy. The
totalitarian dictatorships in the enemy countries had even made the ideolog-
ical issue much sharper in this War than it was in the First World War.
Moreover, in this War the principle of democracy had to be applied more
explicitly to race. Fascism and nazism are based on a racial superiority
dogma—not unlike the old hackneyed American caste theory—and they
came to power by means of racial persecution and oppression. In fighting
fascism and nazism, America had to stand before the whole world in favor
of racial tolerance and cooperation and of racial equality. It had to denounce
German racialism as a reversion to barbarism. It had to proclaim universal
brotherhood and the inalienable human freedoms. The fact that the
Japanese utilize anti-white feelings in Asia and elsewhere made it even
more necessary to stress the racial equality principle.
In the internal political struggle before America became involved in the
War, the isolationists had worked up the idea that there was much to
improve at home without trying to improve the rest of the world. They did
not disdain even to point to the injustices inflicted upon the Negro j
many
isolationists to the left put the Negro cause to the forefront. A Georgia
senator who had made a lengthy talk about the danger to democracy
abroad was challenged by an isolationist co-senator with the question
whether the fight for democracy should not begin in Georgia. The plight
of the Negro sharecropper and the presence of peonage and lynching were
brought up to stress the unsolved tasks at home and to win Negro sym-
pathies for the isolationist cause.^ One permanent result of this pre-war
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