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Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. The Approach - 3. Facets of the Negro Problem - 7. The Theory of the Vicious Circle
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Chapter 3. Facets of the Negro Problem 77
problem as a special phase of all other social problems in America. Behind
the barrier of common discrimination, there is unity and close interrelation
between the Negro’s political power j
his civil rights j
his employment
opportunities 5
his standards of housing, nutrition and clothing j
his health,
manners, and law observance; his ideals and ideologies. The unity is largely
the result of cumulative causation binding them all together in a system
and tying them to white discrimination. It is useful, therefore, to interpret
all the separate factors from a central vantage point—^the point of view
of the Negro problem.
Another corollary from our hypothesis is practical. In the field of Negro
politics any push upward directed on any one of those factors—if our main
hypothesis is correct—moves all other factors in the same direction and
has, through them, a cumulative effect upon general Negro status. An
upward trend of Negro status in general can be effected by any number
of measures, rather independent of where the initial push is localized. By
the process of cumulation it will be transferred through the whole system.
But, as in the field of economic anti-depression policy, it matters a lot
how the measures are proportioned and applied. The directing and
proportioning of the measures is the task of social engineering. This
engineering should be based on a knowledge of how all the factors
are actually interrelated: what effect a primary change upon each factor
will have on all other factors. It can be generally stated, however,
that it is likely that a rational folicy will never work by changing
only one factor, least of all if attempted suddenly and with great force.
In most cases that would either throw the system entirely out of gear or
else prove to be a wasteful expenditure of effort which could reach much
further by being spread strategically over various factors in the system and
over a period of time.
This—and the impracticability of getting political support for a great
and sudden change of just one factor—is the rational refutation of so-called
panaceas. Panaceas are now generally repudiated in the literature on the
Negro problem, though usually without much rational motivation. There
still exists, however, another theoretical idea which is similar to the idea
of panacea: the idea that there is one predominant factor, a ^‘basic factor.”
Usually the so-called ^‘economic factor” is assumed to be this basic factor.
A vague conception of economic determinism has, in fact, come to color
most of the modern writings on the Negro problem far outside the Marxist
school. Such a view has unwarrantedly acquired the prestige of being a
particularly ^^hard-boiled” scientific approach.
As we look upon the problem of dynamic social causation, this approach
is unrealistic and narrow. We do not, of course, deny that the conditions
under which Negroes are allowed to earn a living are tremendously
important for their welfare. But these conditions are closely interrelated
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