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 - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 34. Accommodating Leadership - 8. The Glamour Personalities
<< 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 34. Accommodating Leadership 735
characteristic of a young culture. Negroes are only following a common
American pattern, which, as usual, their caste status leads them to exag-
gerate somewhat. The early history of Charles Lindbergh is a case in
point. The white public also influences Negroes to expect too much
from a Negro who achieves something in a particular field. All Negroes
look alike to many whites, and whoever, by whatever means, comes before
the public eye becomes regarded as an outstanding Negro and is expected
to hold a position of unwarranted importance in Negro affairs.
It must also be noted that Negro celebrities—^actually perhaps even
more carefully than white ones in America—^generally show great restraint
in avoiding the temptation of stepping outside their narrow field of com-
petence. Marian Anderson is a good example of scrupulous adherence to
this rule. When Paul Robeson and Richard Wright sometimes discuss
general aspects of the Negro problem, they do so only after study and
consideration. These two have deliberately taken up politics as a major
interest. They act then in the same spirit and the same capacity as, for
instance, Pearl Buck when she steps out of her role as a writer of novels
and writes a social and philosophical essay on the women’s problem.
Although the possibilities and the temptations have been so great, glamour
personalities have usually not exploited Negroes or the Negro problem.
It may be suggested that in the Negro world, and specifically in
Northern Negro communities, women have a somewhat greater oppor-
tunity to reach active leadership than in white society. Negro women are
not so often put aside into ^^women’s auxiliaries” as are white women. If
this hypothesis is correct, it corresponds well with the fact of Negro
women’s relatively greater economic and social independence.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
