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Chapter 4. Racial Beliefs 109
ordinary white man’s actual observations of average Negroes in their
present inferior status make most of his beliefs natural and reasonabl^^ to
him. The dependent Negro’s attempts to accommodate to the wishes and
expectations of the dominant white group facilitate this tendency. This all
refers to the South. In the North, white people may have few personal
experiences of Negroes, but they take over the myths, legends, and stereo-
types that are existent in their culture.
Assuming as our value fremise that we want to reduce the bias in white
people’s racial beliefs concerning Negroes,* our first practical conclusion
is that we can effect this result to a degree by actually improving Negro
status, Negro behavior, Negro characteristics. The impediment in the way
of this strategy is, of course, that white beliefs, directly and indirectly, are
active forces in keeping the Negroes low. We have already referred to this
vicious circle.
A second line of strategy must be to rectify the ordinary white man’s
observations of Negro characteristics and inform him of the specific mistakes
he is making in ascribing them wholesale to inborn racial traits. We may
assume that, until the Negro people were studied scientifically—which in
a strict sense of the term means not until recent decades—^the raw material
for beliefs which the average white man had at his disposal in the form of
transmitted knowledge and personal observations placed only the most
flexible limits to his opportunistic imagination. When, however, scientific
Knowledge is being spread among people and becomes absorbed by them
through popular literature, press, radio, school, and church, this means
that the beliefs are gradually placed under firmer control of reality. People
want to be rationaly to be honest and well informed. This want, if it is
properly nourished, acts as a competing force among the opportunistic
interests. To a degree the desire to be rational slowly overcomes the
resistance of the desire to build false rationalizations. The resistance is,
however, keen. Professor Young tells us:
More than live hundred students of the author continued to rank the “American”
as the superior “race” after completing a course on race relations! The “will to
believe” ... is strong!®^
The paramount practical importance of scientific research on the Negro
is apparent for improvement of interracial relations. It is no accident that
popular beliefs are biased heavily in a direction unfavorable to the Negro
people—^because they are steered by white people’s needs for justification
of the caste order. And it is, consequently, no accident either that scientific
research, as it is progressing, is unmasking and rejecting these beliefs and
giving rational reasons for beliefs more favorable to the Negroes. It is
* The desire to be rational, to know the truth, and to think straight is—as need not be
elaborated upon—central in the American Creed, and is accepted by everybody in principle.
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