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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 38. Negro Popular Theories - 13. Miscellaneous Ideologies
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8o8 An American Dilemma
The account of Negro ideologies in this chapter is only selective. There
are a great number of other loose ideas rambling around in the Negro
world, on how to solve the Negro problem; some of them are referred to
in other chapters of this part. Amalgamation and passing are sometimes
referred to vaguely as an “ultimate solution.” There are popular chauvin-
istic theories connected with religious ideas in the various churches and
sects. Racialism of the Garvey type is harbored among the masses and, as
Bunche observes, “there are, in the Negro universities, a good many ^aca-
demic Garveyites’.”^^ Under this racial perspective the world may assume
queer proportions:
Thus many Negroes hold to a conception of the Negro problem that can be
described only as an “optimistic fatalism.” The burdens of the present are lightened in
the conviction of the inevitability of the “black man’s day” when all will be
reversed. Whereas the Lothrop Stoddards bombard the white man with warning that
the dark tide is rising, the black man considers this an augury of that future day
when the world will see the “bottom rail on top,” when black men will rule and
their past will be vindicated. The heroic struggle of the British Indians for inde-
pendence is acclaimed; Japan’s rise to power in the East—even her invasion of China
—is regarded as a source of great encouragement; every instance of rebellion in
Africa, the Dutch East Indies, the West Indies, is hailed as a victory. Ethiopia was
championed against Italy, and Liberia is a source of great pride. Every outbreak in
Europe is considered of utmost importance to the dark races of the world. The
internecine conflicts, the conflagrations in the white world are all regarded as certain
signs of the ultimate decline and fall from dominance of the white races, upon which
the dark peoples will invest the chancellories of the world. It is pointed out that
the dark people greatly outnumber the whites in the population of the world. That
all this will transpire is never doubted; it is not a product of reason or cold calcula-
tion, but is based upon blind faith. It is foretold in the stars, the scriptures, by the
prophets ;
it is written and must come to pass.^^
Even the most superb political brains of the Negro people, constantly
holding themselves with intentional effort to positive thinking, must some-
times feel tired and pessimistic when facing the difficulties of getting a
hearing from the dominant whites. Confesses ^^^don Johnson*.
There is in us ail a stronger tendency toward isolation than we may be aware of.
periisXent integxationist becomes an isdiationvsX,
when he curses the white world and consigns it to hell. This tendency toward isola-
„«on i, strong because it springs from a deep-seated, natural desire-a desire for respite
from the nnrem.tt.ng, gruelhng struggle; for a place in which refuge might be taken.
We are agam and agatn confronted by this question. It is ever pre^nt, though often
dormant.^®
What holds Negro thinking in a
most of the time upon positive goals
fairly consistent scheme and directs it
IS, in the final analysis, the determina-
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