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u88 An American Dilemma
century exploitation. For some statements of this doctrine, see W. O. Brown, ‘‘Ration-
alization of Race Prejudice,” ThC’ International Journal of Ethics (April, 1933), pp.
299-301.
^ H. A. Washington (editor). The Writings of Thomas Jeferson (1859), Vol. I,
P- 49-
^Letter to Robert Morris, dated April 12, 1786. Jonas Viles (editor). Letters and
Addresses of George Washington (1908), p. 285.
® “Government and the Negro,” Annals of the Academ^^ of Political and Social
Science (November, 1928), p. 99.
® This materialistic explanation is not a new idea. It was already seen clearly by some
in the ante’-bellum South. George Fitzhugh, for example, writes:
“Our Southern patriots, at the time of the Revolution, finding negroes expensive and
useless, became warm anti-slavery men. We, their wiser sons, having learned to make
cotton and sugar, find slavery very useful and profitable, and think it a most excellent
institution. We of the South advocate slavery, no doubt, from just as selfish motives
as induce the Yankees and English to deprecate it.”
The rationalization comes immediately, however:
“We have, however, almost all human and divine authority on our side of the
argument. The Bible nowhere condemns, and throughout recognises slavery.” {Sociology
for the South [1854], p. 269.)
^ Chancellor William Harper, “Memoir on Slavery,” paper read before the Society
for the Advancement of Learning of South Carolina, annual meeting at Columbia,
South Carolina, 1837 (1838), pp. 6-8.
® This stress on moral equality has not been lost through the ages. T. J. Woofter, Jr.,
a representative of modern Southern liberalism, writes:
“It is desirable frankly to recognize the diflferences as they actually exist, but there
is absolutely no ethical justification for the assumption that an advantaged group has an
inherent right to exploit and oppress, and the prejudice based upon the assumptions is
the most vicious enemy to human peace and cooperation.” {Basis of Racial Adjustment
(1925],?. II.)
Vance, another Southern liberal, writes:
“In a field where doubts abound, let us make one sweeping statement. If biological
inferiority of the whole Negro group were a proved fact, it would, nevertheless, be to
the benefit of both white and black to behave as though it did not exist. Only in this
way can the Section be sure of securing, in the economic sphere, the best of which both
races are capable.” (Rupert B. Vance, Human Geografhy of the South [1932], p. 463.)
® “Prejudice of any sort, racial or otherwise, is regarded as derogatory to intellectual
integrity, incompatible with good taste, and perhaps morally reprehensible. Hence the
prejudiced in order to be secure in their illusions of rationality, impeccable taste, and
moral correctness find rationalizations essential. The rationalization inoculates against
insights as to the real nature of one’s reactions. It secures the individual in his moral
universe. It satisfies his impulse to rationality. The mind thus becomes an instrument,
a hand-maiden, of the emotions, supplying good reasons for prejudiced reactions in the
realm of racial, class, or sectarian contacts.” (Brown, of, cit,y p. 294.)
In this connection it is interesting to note, as an example of how political reaction
fosters racialism, that in the ante-bellum South racial thinking also turned toward
ibeliefs in biological differences between whites. The legend was spread that the white
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