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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 - 5. The War and the Whites - 6. The North Moves Toward Equality
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1010 An American Dilemma
tution and the laws which could be changed, but also the American Creed
which is firmly rooted in the Americans’ hearts.
6. The North Moves Toward Equality
In the North the Creed was strong enough long before the War to
secure for the Negro practically unabridged civic equality in all his relations
with public authority, whether it was in voting, before the courts, in the
school system or as a relief recipient. But he is discriminated against ruth-
lessly in private relations, as when looking for a job or seeking a home to
live in. The white Northerner, in his private dealings with people to whom
he does not feel akin, has dangerous traditions derived from the exploita-
tion of new immigrants. But even in those nonpublic spheres, and particu-
larly in the problem of breadwinning, the white Northerner is becoming
prepared, as a citizen, to give the Negro his just opportunity. But appar-
ently, as a private individual, he is less prepared to feel that he himself
is the man to give the Negro a better chance: in his own occupation, trade
union, office or workshop, in his own residential neighborhood or in his
church. The social paradox in the North is exactly this, that almost every-
body is against discrimination in general but, at the same time, almost
everybody practices discrimination in his own personal affairs.
It is the cumulation of all these personal discriminations which creates
the color bar in the North and for the Negro causes unusually severe
unemployment, crowded housing conditions, crime and vice. About this
social process the ordinary white Northerner keeps sublimely ignorant and
unconcerned. This aloofness is, of course, partly opportunistic but it can
be fought by education. When now, in the war emergency, the Negro is
increasingly given sympathetic publicity by newspapers, periodicals, and
the radio, and by administrators and public personalities of all kinds, one
result is that the white Northerner is gradually waking up and seeing what
he is doing to the Negro and is seeing also the consequences of his demo-
cratic Creed for his relations with Negroes. We have become convinced in
the course of this inquiry that the North is getting prepared for a funda-
mental redefinition of the Negro’s status in America. The North will accept
it if the change is pushed by courageous leadership. And the North has
much more power than the South. The white South is itself a minority and
a national problem.
Also working in favor of the Negro is another trend, namely, the
concentration of responsibility. Particularly in the crucial economic sphere
this trend is rapid. Labor relations are coming increasingly to be planned
and regulated by broad union policies and by national legislation and
administration. The War will force this change forward step by step. After
the War, in the great crisis of demobilization and liquidation, mass unem-
ployment will be a main problem. Large-scale public intervention will be
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