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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 - 2. The Ignorance and Lack of Concern of Northern Whites
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384 An American Dilemma
of the Negro have largely been ineffective because they have been of a
general type and have evaded practical issues. Except for the well-planned
and efficiently carried out campaign against lynching in the South,® there
has been, prior to the present war emergency, no example in recent times
of a large-scale endeavor to educate the American white public in the Negro
problem and to force it to face the practical consequences of the cherished
general principles contained in the American Creed.
The importance of the inculcation of the general principles of democracy
in the American people which has been going on for so many generations,
should not be under-rated. It is true that practical and specific issues are
often avoided in a rather opportunistic way, so as not to disturb the con-
science of the white people. The fact that ignorance and unconcernedness
are so opportune means, of course, that additional popular education along
more concrete lines will meet tremendous emotional resistance. But this
resistance is not insurmountable. People are also bent upon rationality.
Their allegiance to the ideals of the American Creed is strong and is held
consciously. The ideals of Christianity also command their allegiance. One
implication of their belief in the principles of democracy and Christianity
is that they are susceptible to the more specific and practical consequences
of these principles. There are, as we shall find, other important trends that
will make ignorance and unconcernedness more difficult to uphold, and that
will press for public education in this field. Through unionization and social
legislation the labor market is increasingly coming under the control of a
formal regulation that will demand equality of opportunity.
There is an observation which we shall find substantiated in every aspect
of the Negro problem, that the ordinary white American is the more
prejudiced, the more closely individual and personal the matter is. When
he becomes formal and, particularly, when he acts as a citizen, he is very
much more under the control of the equal itarian national Creed than when
he is just an individual worker, neighbor or customer. There is often a
similar difference between the leaders and the masses in the North. Leaders
are confronted with the wider issues. Therefore, it is more difficult for
them to repudiate, openly, the American ideals of equality. The private
individual, on the other hand, seeks to pretend that his individual behavior
is an exception which is especially motivated and which creates no long-run
harm to Negroes. If he fails to hire Negroes in his shop, or to welcome
them as fellow workmen, he does not mean that Negroes should not have
any jobs, but only that they should not have jobs where his own interests
are involved.
Prejudice and discrimination . show up devastating social effects only
when viewed from a broader perspective. The individual, but not society,
“See Chapter 27, Section 4i and Chapter 39, sections on the N.A.A.C.P. and The Inter-
racial Commission.
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