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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 - 7. A Position of “Indifferent Equilibrium” - 8. In the South
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394 American Dilemma
selves by this policy are unable to get any practical experience with Negro
workers, they often come to believe that Negroes are inferior for all but
the most menial tasks. So long as the white labor supply is sufficient they
see no reason to check their opinions.
White workers, most of the time, have to adjust themselves to the policy
of the employers. There have been few, if any, serious incidents in the
Ford factories in Detroit, where for many years the Negroes have had a
comparatively good position, whereas most other automobile manufacturers
have been reluctant to give Negroes a real break because they expect that
the white workers would resent it. The main difference in the two situations
seems to be that Henry Ford is known to have the definite policy of letting
the Negroes have a fair share of the jobs. The white workers just have to
accept this if they want to keep their jobs. Even Southern-born workers,
although they usually tend to display much more race prejudice than
others, have had to become accustomed to working with Negroes. Northern
white workers are often said to start out with a feeling of strangeness and
suspicion against Negroes. If they meet a firm policy from the employer,
they change, usually quickly.’^
The large margins of indifference toward the policy of hiring Negro
workers, and the instability within these margins, are of tremendous
importance for the practical problem we are analyzing in this chapter. In
the discussion of the Negro problem there is, as we shall find in many of
its various aspects, a constant temptation to over-stress the factors of resist-
ance to change, and the literature is visibly tainted by this bias in the
service of the ^Mo nothing” attitude. In the economic field, the depression
of the ’thirties has given greater plausibility to this bias. Large-scale unem-
ployment has a tendency to check the trend toward improved race relations
in the labor market. One of the main reasons why even in the present war
boom Negroes so far have gained little ground®—and much less than
during the First World War—is that the boom started with much white
unemployment. In latter phases of the war boom, the instability discussed
in this section might come to be of greatest importance, particularly if it
be utilized by a well-planned policy directed toward mitigating economic
discrimination. Generally spealang, it is safe to predict that any policy to
secure and defend a place for the Negroes in the Northern industrial labor
market will depend for its success on the possibility of keeping the general
unemployment level low.
8. In the South
These observations have all referred to the North. The situation in the
South is not entirely different, but there are certain significant dissimilar-
ities, some advantageous and some disadvantageous. The factor of ignorance
‘See Chapter 19.
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