An Exploratory Study of Attitudes of Negro Professionals toward Competition with Whites

There has been considerable speculation regarding the significance of the component competition in the race attitudes of Negroes and whites. However, empirical research in the field has neglected exploration of the significance of this factor. In the present report, attitudinal responses of 100 male Negro physicians, dentists, lawyers and public school teachers toward open competition reveal ambivalence about the matter. While they tend to accept the idea of open competition, they are considerably less than enthusiastic. T he literature in sociology reveals a paucity of empirical research on the attitudes of Negroes toward whites. Generally speaking, any treatment of the race attitudes of Negroes has been limited to "sophisticated guesses" and inferences from studies which show no specific relationship to the nature of attitudes.' While the recent changes in Negrowhite relations have given impetus to a number of polls on reactions of Negroes to racial events, a major gap remains in our knowledge of the race attitudes of this subgroup in the population. The significance of this imbalance is becoming increasingly more apparent to some writers as indicated in the observations of Robin Williams.2 He states: The communication and interaction of any 'minority' racial or cultural group with the dominant group is, of course, one pole of a two-sided relationship. What looked at from one pole is a 'stimulus' becomes a 'response' from the other. This was very 1 Most research has been focused on studies of racial awareness of Negroes and stereotypes of whites. Unfortunately, we have been forced to infer attitudes from these investigations because of the limited amount of empirical research in the literature. Examples of this type of research are found in the reports by Kenneth and Mamie Clark, beginning with their study, "Segregation as a Factor in Racial Identification of Negro Preschool Children: A Preliminary Report," Journial of Experimental Education, 11 (1939), pp. 161-163. Also, Mary Goodman, Race Awoareness in Yowng Children (Cambridge, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Press, 1952). On studies of stereotypes, see: James Bayton, "The Racial Stereotypes of Negro College Students," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (January 1941), pp. 97-102; Tilman Cothran, "Negro Conceptions of White People," American Journal of Sociology, 46 (1951), pp. 458467; Paul H. McDaniel and Nicholas Babchuck, "Negro Conceptions of White People in a Northeastern City," Phylon, 21 (Spring 1960), pp. 7-19. For studies on the race attitudes of Negroes, see Mozell Hill, "Basic Attitudes toward Whites in the All-Negro Communtiy," Anterican Journal of Sociology, 49 (1944), pp. 519-523; Robert Johnson, "Negro Reactions to Minority Status," in Milton L. Barron (ed.), American Minorities (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1957), pp. 192-214; Harry W. Roberts, "Prior-Service Attitudes toward Whites of 219 Negro Veterans," The Journal of Negro Edcucation, 22 (1953), pp. 455-465; Frank R. Westie and David H. Howard, "Social Status Differentials and the Race Attitudes of Negroes," American Sociological Review, 19 (October 1954), pp. 584591. For more recent studies on. racial attitudes of Negroes, see William Brink and Louis Harris, The Negro Revoluttion i Aimerica (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964), pp. 125-137; Robin Williams, Strantgers Next Door: Ethnic Relations in American Coznimunities (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1964), pp. 223-311; Richard A. Lamanna, "The Negro Teacher and Desegregation: A Study of Strategic Decision Makers and Their Vested Interests in Different Community Contexts," Sociological Inquiry, 35 (Winter 1965), pp. 26-40; Richard Lamanna, The Negro Public School Teacher and School Desegregation: A Survey of Negro Teachers in North Carolina, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1965. 2 Robin M. Williams, Jr., Review and Assessnent of Research on Race and Culture Conflict, unpublished manuscript, 1952. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.110 on Sun, 04 Dec 2016 04:54:17 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms ATTITUDES OF NEGRO PROFESSIONALS 21 clear to earlier students of race relations, notably Park, but has tended to be obscured in the present generation by the focus upon 'majority prejudice,' although everything we know about human social behavior points to its inherently reciprocal nature. This report presents a few of the more conspicuous findings from an investigation of one aspect of the attitudes of Negro physicians, dentists, lawyers and public school teachers toward open competition with whites within the same professions. The study was designed to provide some measure of empirical insight into the validity of the well popularized "competition theory" in race relations. The literature in sociology is proliferous with explanations of prejudice of whites toward Negroes within the framework of the "competition theory." There are many variants of this explanation, but the basic ideas in the theory remain the same. Essentially the theory states that prejudice of whites toward Negroes is a result of the dominant majority's determination to limit the participation of Negroes in an otherwise open social system in order that the majority group may have more exclusive access to economic and social rewards.3 Some writers have emphasized the economic factor,4 while others hIave given equal emphasis to economic and social factors. For example, Frazier states: To be prejudiced against a racial group involves an unwillingness to compete with members of that group for social position or economic goods.5 While some effort has been made to explain prejudice of whites toward Negroes in terms of attitudes of the majority group toward competition with this minority, there has been a virtual neglect of the significance of the attitudes of Negroes toward competition with whites. The assumption is made that Negroes favor open competition with the majority group. This assumption is derived to some extent from our knowledge that the genesis of race prejudice is within the majority group, and since restriction on competition is a basic component in prejudice, it is the majority group which does not wish to participate in an open system of competition. Although systematic observations of prejudice of whites toward Negroes provide considerable empirical support of the above assumption, there remains the problem of exploring the attitudes of Negroes toward competition, if we are to expand our knowledge of the degree of significance of competition as a component in prejudice. The fact that Negroes have periodically supported ideologies and movements aimed at structuring a system of economic competition in varying degrees independent of whites is well documented in our historical and sociological annals of knowledge.6 Therefore, without empirical evidence, it is fallacious to assume that Negroes favor a system of complete open competition. Regarding the more recent pattern of attitudes toward competition with whites, Frazier7 has observed: 3 This theory gives recognition to the fact that the American society is characterized by an emphasis on competition which permeates the social structure and culture. Although the socialization process varies, rarely does one escape this emphasis on competition completely. One of the primary objects of competition is success, a value which cannot be shared equally by all individuals and subgroups. The degree of success is measured in terms of income, prestige, power and material objects and services. 4 See Oliver C. Cox, Caste, Class and Race: A Study of Social Dy iamics (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1948), p. 475. 5 E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro in the United States (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1957), pp. 669-670. 6 The social philosophy advanced by Booker T. Washington advocated an ideology which supported an autonomous system of occupational and business competition for Negroes. Likewise, the Garvey Movement which emerged following World War I was one such enterprise. In the more recent period of Negro-white relations, the Black Muslims have advocated an ideology with similar elements. The pervasiveness of some facet of the ideology in a more "acceptable" form is evident in the rationale of private and public opinion statements by Negro conmmunity leaders when they seek to encourage increased patronage of Negro professionals and businesses. 7 E. Franklin Frazier, Black Bourgeoisie (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1957), p. 216. Also see E. Franklin Frazier, "The Negro's Vested Interest in Segregation," in Arnold M. Rose (ed.), Race Pre judice and Discrimination (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1951), p. 335. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.110 on Sun, 04 Dec 2016 04:54:17 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms