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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 17. The Mechanics of Economic Discrimination as a Practical Problem - 1. The Practical Problem - 2. The Ignorance and Lack of Concern of Northern Whites
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Chapter 17. A Practical Problem 383
expressed, we shall give our first attention to the North. Some of the state-
ments we shall make are substantiated, or, at least, illustrated, by the data
recorded in Chapter 13 and Appendix 6. But on many points data are
lacking, and inferences will have to be conjectural, as they are built, to
some extent, on impressionistic observations.
2. The Ignorance and Lack of Concern of Northern Whites
Even in the North the Negro is generally believed to be inferior as a
worker. White employees often are strongly against having any Negro
co-workers. Yet these attitudes are less general and less well entrenched in
the North than they are in the South. Many, perhaps even most. North-
erners tend to be rather uncertain and vacillating on such matters. There
is nothing in their general ideologies which would support economic
discrimination against Negroes. There is no racial etiquette, little emotion
about the “social equality” issue, no white solidarity for the purpose of
“keeping the Negro in his place.”® On the contrary, the equalitarian prin-
ciples of the American Creed dominate people^s opinions in the North.
Northern states and municipalities, as we saw in Chapter 15, usually up-
hold nondiscrimination in public relief as well as in politics, justice, and
all other relations between public authorities and the citizens.*^ Peofle in
the North are ^^againsP^ economic discrimination as a general frofosition.
If the white Northerners had to vote on the issue, a large majority would
probably come out for full equality of opportunities on the labor market:
they would be in favor of making employment opportunities “independent
of race, creed or color.” The actual discrimination is, however, as we have
seen, the rule and not the exception.
To understand this apparent contradiction, we shall have to remember,
first, that slight causes^
when they cumulate, may have big effects; and
secondy that the whole issue is enveloped in offortune ignorance and
unconcernedness on the fart of the whites} Comparatively few white
Northerners are actually engaged in discriminatory behavior which they
recognize as such. The practical inference is that the social engineering
required should have its basis in a deliberate and welUflanned campaign
of fofular education. The education of whites is an important general
need in the whole sphere of race relations, but the chances of success are
much greater in the economic field than in any other.*^
There have always been efforts to improve race relations by educational
propaganda in American churches, schools, and in the press. But compared
to the scope of the problem, these efforts have been quantitatively insig-
nificant. The Negro is usually forgotten. Moreover, the efforts on behalf
• See Part VII.
**
See Parts V and VI.
This is related to the theory of the rank order in Chapter 3, Section 4.
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