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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Approach - 3. Facets of the Negro Problem - 5. Relationships between Lower Class Groups - 6. The Manifoldness and the Unity of the Negro Problem
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Chapter 3. Facets of the Negro Problem 73
deeper roots in all the cultural influences working upon a personality. If
this correlation is represented by a composite scale running from radicalism,
through liberalism and conservatism, to reactionism, it is suggested that
it will be found that all subordinate groups—Negroes, women, minorities
in general, poor people, prisoners, and so forth—will find their interests
more favored in political opinion as we move toward the left of the scale.
This hypothesis of a system of opinion correlation will, however, have to
be taken with a grain of salt, since this correlation is obviously far from
complete.
In general, poor people are not radical and not even liberal, though to
have such political opinions would often be in their interest. Liberalism is
not characteristic of Negroes either, except, of course, that they take a
radical position in the Negro problem. We must guard against a superficial
bias (probably of Marxian origin) which makes us believe that the lower
classes are naturally prepared to take a broad point of view and a friendly
attitude toward all disadvantaged groups. A liberal outlook is much more
likely to emerge among people in a somewhat secure social and economic
situation and with a background of education. The problem for political
liberalism—if, for example, we might be allowed to pose the problem in
the practical, instead of the theoretical mode—appears to be first to lift
the masses to security and education and then to work to make them liberal.
The South, compared to the other regions of America, has the least
economic security, the lowest educational level, and is most conservative.
The South’s conservatism is manifested not only with respect to the Negro
problem but also with respect to all the other important problems of the
last decades—woman suffrage, trade unionism, labor legislation, social
security reforms, penal reforms, civil liberties—and with respect to broad
philosophical matters, such as the character of religious beliefs and practices.
Even at present the South does not Jiave a full spectrum of political
opinions represented within its public discussion. There are relatively few
liberals in the South and practically no radicals.®
The recent economic stagnation (which for the rural South has lasted
much more than ten years), the flood of social reforms thrust upon the
South by the federal government, and the fact that the rate of industrial-
ization in the South is higher than in the rest of the nation, may well come
to cause an upheaval in the South’s entire opinion structure. The importance
of this for the Negro problem may be considerable.**
6. The Manifoldness and the Unity of the Negro Problem
The Negro problem has the manifoldness of human life. Like the
women’s problem, it touches every other social issue, or rather, it repre-
sents an angle of them all. A glance at the table of contents of this volume
* See Chapter 21, Section 5.
^
See Chapter 21, Section ^
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