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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Approach - 3. Facets of the Negro Problem - 1. American Minority Problems - 2. The Anti-Amalgamation Doctrine
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Chapter 3. Facets of the Negro Problem 53
facts of discrimination that the Creed will be without influence in the long
run, even if it is suppressed for the moment, or even that it is uninfluential
in the short run.
In trying to reconcile conflicting valuations the ordinary American
apparently is inclined to believe that, as generations pass on, the remain-
ing minority groups—with certain distinct exceptions which will presently
be discussed—will be assimilated into a homogeneous nation.^ The American
Creed is at least partially responsible for this, as well as for the American’s
inclination to deem this assimilation desirable. Of course, this view is also
based on the memories of previous absorption of minority groups into the
dominant ^^Amcrican” population. Even the American Indians arc now
considered as ultimately assimilable. ^^The American Indian, once con-
stituting an inferior caste in the social hierarchy, now constitutes little
more than a social class, since today his inferior status may be sloughed
off by the process of cultural assimilation.” ^ This, incidentally, speaks
against the doctrine that race prejudice under all circumstances is an
unchangeable pattern of attitudes.
This long-range view of ultimate assimilation can be found to coexist
with any degree of race prejudice in the actual present-day situation. In
many parts of the country Mexicans arc kept in a status similar to the
Negro’s or only a step above. likewise, in most places anti-Semitism is
strofTg and has apparently been growing for the last ten years."* Italians,
Poles, Finns, are distrusted in some communities; Germans, Scandinavians,
and the Irish are disliked in others, or sometimes the same communities,
’fhere are sections of the majority group which draw the circle exclusively
and who hate all ^‘foreigners.” There are others who keep a somewhat
distinct line only around the more exotic peoples. The individual, regional,
and class differentials in anti-minority feeling are great.^
In spite of all race prejudice, few Americans seem to doubt that it is the
ultimate fate of this nation to incorporate without distinction not only all
the Northern European stocks, but also the people from Eastern and
Southern Europe, the Near East and Mexico. They see obstacles; they
emphasize the religious and “racial” differences; they believe it will take
a long time. But they assume that it is going to happen, and do not have,
on the whole, strong objections to it
—provided it is located in a distant
future.
2. The Anti-Amalgamation Doctrine
The Negroes, on the other hand, are commonly assumed to be unassimi-
lablc and this is the reason why the characterization of the Negro problem
as a minority problem does not exhaust its true import." The Negroes are
set apart, together with other colored peoples, principally the Chinese and
“
Chapter +,
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