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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - X. The Negro Community - 44. Non-Institutional Aspects of the Negro Community - 1. “Peculiarities” of Negro Culture and Personality
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964 An American Dilemma
afford any but the most prosaic types of foods. And Negroes are at least
as cautious as are whites in their distribution of expenditures.*^ The belief
that they have so much of the foods they desire seems to have the oppor-
tunistic purpose of hiding the fact that Negroes are too poor to buy all
the foods they actually need.’^
Another commonly observed trait of Negroes is their lack of poise, their
inability to act in the conventional yet free and easy way expected of
adult men and women in America. Much of this is a product of Southern
caste etiquette, of course, where Negroes are presumed to be ‘^uppity” if
they stand up straight, look into the eyes of the person they are talking to
and speak distinctly and to the point. Even in the North, many Southern-
born Negroes keep their eyes on the ground, shuffle their feet, wiggle their
bodies, and talk in a roundabout manner. Even when they want to get
away from the Southern caste etiquette, many Negroes lack poise in their
contacts with whites out of a sense of insecurity. Like adolescent youths,
many Negroes will either exhibit a startling lack of poise or appear to
gain it by putting on a cold front and acting mechanically. The uncertainty
of the caste etiquette is another factor making for lack of poise: how a
Negro is supposed to act before a white man varies with time, locality and
the character of the white man. Among themselves, of course, Negroes are
as much at ease as white people are.
At all times, even when they have poise, Negroes are secretive about
their community when talking to whites.® They are suspicious of questions,
and, except for stool pigeons who gain something by telling whites what
goes on among Negroes, they are loyal to their group. They will usually
protect any Negro from the whites, even when they happen not to like
that individual Negro. They do not like to talk to whites about their
community or about Negroes in general, for fear that anything they say
will be twisted around to disparage Negroes. This is true even of Negro
intellectuals when they talk to friendly white intellectuals. Negroes are
suspicious of whites, even when there is not the slightest ground for being
so, and whites seldom realize this.
The Negro’s superstitiousness has been given much attention by whites.
It is generally assumed that the Negro’s superstitions and magical practices
are of African origin. There is probably some truth in this assumption, but
it has led whites to search out these superstitions and magical practices and
to exaggerate them. As Powdermaker says, in referring to the large litera-
* Chapter x6, Sections 3 and 5.
Somewhat like the belief that Negroes are addicted to certain foods is their association
with dice-throwing. City Negroes do engage in muc\» dice-throwing, but rural Negroes and
upper ciass Negroes do not ohen engage in this pastime. Crap-shooting is now so much
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