Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1918-12-28
THE COMMON BURDEN
(The Crisis

root of race prejudice Until the one is re-
moved and the other awakened, there can be
no real improvement. Development along
these lines is needed more by the white man
than by the black man. j. L. Kesler saws
in the american City:
The Negro problem, public or private. in
dustriaI or institutional, is, human prob
lem. Until we face the issue as human in
it's human relations until we think of all
citizens as human beings with human rights
human interests and human possibilities:
until we insist upon equality Of opportunity.
economic industrial, educational equality
before the law, equal sanitary provision,
equal protection Of person and property;
until we become conscious of common
brotherhood and cease to exploit the weak
and to treat them as chattes and property:
until we put democracy into our own life
as speed it's splendid hope Of the world
We not even in sight of a solution and
futiIltv faces our tasks Of reform
1t is not simply a Negro problem; it is
also a Caucasian problem. 1t is not simply
the "white man s burden;" it is also the
black man s burden. 1t is a problem of both
races. It's solution means mutual under
standings and establishments. It means mu-
tllally more generous sympathy and re-
spect, without which there can be no COM
man standing ground. This new attitude
must not only be intellectually allowed by
the white people; it must be consciously felt
and communicated, so that a new atmos-
phere of dignity and freedom and posi-
bility shall meet and strengthen the aspira-
ton Of the Negro race and superindlce a
conscious self-respect and hope. By some
such means alone may the perils Of two
segregated races with mutual interrelations,
living i'll the same territory, be reduced to
What he (the Negro) loathes and detests
is the constant reminder that he is inferior,
that anything is good enough for mig
ger that sanitation and sewerage and DO
lice protection and paved streets and parks
are not necessary for him; that moral lep-
rosy and segregated vice may preempt ter
lltory in his community and be immune to
civic interest and disturbance; that he is
disseminated against not on account of
merit but on account of color; that his wife
or his daughter, if they are beautiful-and
some OF them are-are not safe from insult
on account of the lack Of racial respect and
honor
Mr.. kesler feels that the rights of man
regardless of race or color must be recog-
n1zed And white Americans must acknowl-
edge and rcctify the awful abuses of legis
lation and lynch law
Respect! Here is the solution-interra-
clal respect. For lack of it both races are
III peril. Moral safety demands deep and
abiding respect for personality, interracial
and among all intergraded social levels, if
we are to escape the moral backwash be-
tween races and classes Of society," Here
we need a broader and deeper democracy
We may be separate as races or classes, but
one as human beings and citizens This
conscious democracy Of the rights of man
kind, as human beings, is fundamental and
final.
We must acknowledge that there has been
discrimination against the Negro in legsla-
ton; but the law has not been so crooked
as the execution Of the law. Even in poll
ties he has been cheated out Of his vote more
Shamefuly than prevented from voting by