Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 23. Trends and Possibilities - 1. The Negro’s Political Bargaining Power
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chapter 23. Trends and Possibilities 507
can citizen and as a wholehearted supporter of a party, and that—^when
acting as a representative for his group—^he is out to get favors for them,
are conducive to a psychology where broad political ideas are put in the
background and petty haggling becomes natural. The tendency to cynicism,
which the author has observed everywhere in American Negro communi-
ties, becomes strengthened by the American party system, which does not
correlate closely with broad divisions of real interests and social ideals.
If, in addition, the party machines are corrupt, which they are in most
places where Negroes live in any numbers, the presence of such moral
strength on the part of the Negro leadership as would be prerequisite for
efficient bargaining would be a wonder.
But even apart from all this, the Negro leader is in a dilemma. If he
pleads allegiance to a political party, he will lose in bargaining power. If,
on the other hand, he keeps outside the parties, he loses some of the
influence he could exert by being in the inner circle of one of them.® Out
of the dilemma there is only one possible and rational escape: a division of
labor and responsibility among Negro leaders^ so that the Negro politicians
proper and the party workers identify themselves with political parties and
work with them and for them, while other Negro representatives, invested
with superior prestige among their people, remain independent of close
party ties and do the important collective bargaining. The former group
represents the Negro people’s necessary allegiance to the American party
system, the latter group their separate interests as an independent unit.
For optimal functioning such a system of minority politics requires a
high degree of political sophistication among both leaders and followers
and much good-will and cohesion. It is not surprising that it has not
materialized in any high degree in this subdued and politically inexperi-
enced group. But it might become more of a reality in the future. The
great community of interest in a caste set apart in society, but fighting for
fuller assimilation, offers a firm basis for such an organization of the Negro
people’s political bargaining power.
The political strength of such a dual system of political organization will
depend primarily upon the cohesion of the local Negro political blocs in the
several communities forming its basis. There are, however, a great number
of specific impediments to a further development of the local organization
of Negro political power. One is the internal rivalry among leaders in a
deeply frustrated group.** Power becomes so dear when there is so little of
it. Cynicism becomes so widespread among ambitious individuals whose way
upward is blocked. There is also the tendency among many Negroes
who aspire to prominence, or who have arrived but want to make them-
selves secure, to take orders from the influential whites and to ‘‘sell out”
The problem of Negro leadership will be discussed in Part IX.
^ See Chapter 36, Section 2» and Chapter 37, Section 8.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
