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 - 35. The Negro Protest - 9. Negro History and Culture - 10. The Great Depression and the Second World War
<< 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.
754 An American Dilemma
But some Negroes have doubts about some of these things. They feel
that it is unwise for Negroes to specialize in so few fields, but rather that
they should put more effort into breaking into new fields. They feel that
there is something of a ^^ouble standard’’ when the white man applauds
that some lesser Negro poets and actors are getting applause because they
are Negroes rather than because they have outranked the whites in free
competition. They know that achievements in some of these fields merely
strengthen the harmful stereotypes, that Negroes are innately more emo-
tional and unrestrained and animal-like. They believe that the spirituals
are a “badge of slavery” and retain the memories of slavery in both whites
and Negroes, and that emphasis on things African is emphasis on the prim-
itive background of Negroes. Finally, they are afraid of the “parallel
civilizations” theory held by some whites: that Negroes should retain “their
own” cultural heritage and not lose it for the general American culture.®
All these things—feels this small group of Negroes, mainly intellectuals
will not redound to the ultimate advantage of Negroes but will tie them
more strongly into a subordinate position. But even they, like the rest of the
Negroes, take vicarious satisfaction in the present-day achievements of
individual Negroes, and in so doing express their protest against their
subordinate caste position.’’
10. The Great Depression and the Second World War
The Great Depression struck the Negroes even harder than it did the
whites. Not only did they lose jobs in the cities in greater numbers than did
whites, but many of those who retained employment—especially in agri-
culture—were driven down to starvation wages. Movements like the Black
Shirts were organized to deprive Negroes of what jobs they had. Unem-
ployed Negroes, unlike many unemployed whites, had no savings upon
which they could fall back in the crisis. Also stinging in its effects was the
collapse of the “New Negro” movement in the arts and entertainment fields
this had been giving many Negroes long-range hope for a raised status.
Between 1930 and 1933 there was utter distress and pessimism among
Negroes} practically the only ones with hope were the few who turned to
communism.
Negroes were frankly skeptical of the new President, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, because he was a Democrat, and because rumors were spread
that he was ill and his death would see the elevation of John N. Gainer,
the Vice-President from the South, to the Presidency. In Chicago, typical
of Northern cities where Negroes voted, only about 23 per cent of the
* For a discussion of the ‘‘parallel civilizations” theoiy from the viewpoint of the I’hite
proponents, see Chapter 28 ,
Sections 4 and 8.
^
These achievements also encourage some Negroes and help build up a “tradition of
success,” the lack of which has helped to keep Negroes down in the past.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
