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xo66 An American Dilemma
brief notes are Intended to give an abstract clarification of the theory and a perspective
on some of its future potentialities as a method of social research.
In considering the Negro problem in its most abstract aspect, let us construct a much
simplified mental model of dynamic social causation. We assume in this model society
of our imagination a white majority and a Negro minority. We assume, further, that
the interrelation between the two groups is in part determined by a specific degree of
“race prejudice” on the side of the whites, directed against the Negroes. We assume the
“plane of living” of the Negroes to be considerably lower than that of the whites. We
take, as given, a mutual relationship between our two variables, and we assume this
relationship to be of such a type that, on the one hand, the Negroes’ plane of living
is kept down by discrimination from the side of the whites while, on the other hand,
the whites’ reason for discrimination is partly dependent upon the Negroes’ plane of
living. The Negroes’ poverty, ignorance, superstition, slum dwellings, health deficiencies,
dirty appearance, disorderly conduct, bad odor and criminality stimulate and feed the
antipathy of the whites for them. We assume, for the sake of simplicity, that society,
in our abstract model, is in “balance” initially. By this we mean that conditions are
static, that our two variables are exactly checking each other: there is—under these static
conditions—just enough prejudice on the part of the whites to keep down the Negro
plane of living to that level which maintains the specific degree of prejudice, or the
other way around.
If now, in this hypothetically balanced state, for some reason or other, the Negro
plane of living should be lowered, this will—other things being equal—in its turn
increase white prejudice. Such an increase in white prejudice has the effect of pressing
down still further the Negro plane of living, which again will increase prejudice, and
so on, by way of mutual interaction between the two variables, ad infinitum, A cumula-
tive process is thus set in motion which can have final effects quite out of proportion to
the magnitude of the original push. The push might even be withdrawn after a time,
and still a permanent change will remain or even the process of change will continue
without a new balance in sight. If, instead, the initial change had been such a thing as
a gift from a philanthropist to raise the Negro plane of living, a cumulative movement
would have started in the other direction, having exactly the same causal mechanism.
The vicious circle works both ways.
The Negroes’ “plane of living” is, however, a composite entity. Let us, while retain-
ing our major assumptions, approach a more realistic conception by splitting up this
quantity into components, assuming that the cumulative principle works also in their
causative interrelations. Besides “relative absense of race prejudice on the side of whites,”
we introduce a number of variables: levels of “Negro employment,” “wages,” “housing,”
“nutrition,” “clothing,” “health,”, “education,” “stability in family relations,” “man-
ners,” “cleanliness,” “orderliness,” “trustworthiness,” “law observance,” ‘Royalty to
society at large,” “absence of criminality” and so on. All these variables—according to
our hypotheses—cumulate. In other words, we assume that a movement in any of the
Negro variables in the direction toward the corresponding white levels will tend to
decrease white prejudice. At the same time white prejudice is assumed to be, directly
or indirectly, one of the causative factors effective in keeping the levels low for the
several Negro variables. It is also our hypothesis that, on the whole, a rise in any
single one of the Negro variables will tend to raise all the other Negro vahables and
thus, indirectly as well as directly, result in a cumulatively enforced effect upon white
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