Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1930-10-18
SAYS JOE
SIMPSON
Economical Blindness

the human race, except death itself.
MANY people, if they were forced to
choose between leprosy and blind
ness, would we believt choose the
former, in preference to the latter,
There's is to be seen in Richmond,
by the most casual observer violent
symptoms of a malady that is pre-
valent the country over among Ne
groes, but in Richmond it has almost
reached the epidemic stage. We be-
lieve the most appropriate name for
this strange malady is economic
blindness" especially in view of the
fact that it has the same degrading
effect, the same deadening influence
upon a body or a race of people as
blindness has upon the body OF an
individual; it is destroyer OF lni-
tiative, a blaster of hopes and the
bane of all opportunity.
The writer has Travelled over a
good deal of this country, having
worked in thirty-six of tint forty
eight states of the union, and no
where that he has ever been has the
symptoms of this dreaded disease
been so pronounced, as they are in
the city of Richmond.
WHAT IS THE CAUSEw
Speculation is rife at present as
to the cause of this terrible condition,
but we believe that the causes can
be almost completely determined by
the close scrutiny and consideration
of the four things that we deternlin-
ing factors, namely:
l. Tit lack of progressive leader
ship.
2. The attitude of the white man
towards the Negro.
8. The Negroes attitude towards
segregation and ostracism.
4. Tht former attitude of the Ne
gro business man towards the
Negro masses.
There is an abundance of men
here who are of the caliber to lead,
but the trouble lies in the fact that
they are inactive, they take no part
in those movements that are of the
utmost Importance to the race, they
take no part in politics which should
be of utmost concern to every Negro
in the south. they take no, part in
the financial activities of the rave,
unless of course those activities will
increase their own wealth or boost
their own financial standing, they
take no part in the economic uplift
inaugurated for the bene-
fit of the lower strata of the race,
and last but not outlast, they take
small interest in the affairs of the
church; an institution in which they
should play the leading role, for
their injection of new policies, new
thought and new life into the
church's affairs, can the church, as
well as all other human agencies, be
saved from ultimate degeneration.
2. The general attitude of white
people in Richmond is vastly differ
ent from the attitude of white peo-
pie in the far south, in that, the
whites in Richmond make a bid for
the Negroes trade, insofar as the
selling end is concerned, but when
it comes to the service end, the Ne
gro is an unknown quantity. There
are few places in Richmond where
a Negro can not buy almost any
thing for which his physical or in
tellectual appetite could call, but it
is only on certain conditions that he
can obtain these things; for instance:
A Negro can enter any restaurant
catering to white trade on Broad
Street, and buy food, but cannot
sit in the dining room and consume
that food. He can hire the most up
to date Taxi-cab, but is not per-
mitted to drive one for the same
company He can buy one-forth of
the milk sold in Richmond, yet no
Negroes are hired to drive milk
wagons, not even in Jackson's Ward.
These are only few of the things
that could be mentioned in defense
of our claim that Richmond is af-
flicted with this dreadful malady
called economic blindness" In most
places in the far south this state Of
affairs is exactly the reverse; the
whites do not cater in any sense to
Negro trade, they tell you very
politely and very CURLY, eve
do not serve colored people
here" This attitude on the part of
the white population of the far
south has virtually educated the Ne
groes of that section up to the point
where they will not trade with
whites unless they are forced by
dire necessity to do SO; and too,
there are in most of these places
drug stores, confection-
cries and other Negro business
places, owned and operated by Ne
groes, situated on the principal
streets and in the financial and
business sections of such cities.
3. The Negroes attitude toward
and ostracism, is such
as to warrant the most serious
thought on the part of the people of
this city who feel the weight of re-
sponsibility for the future welfare
of the Negro in this city. They are
almost to the point where they cum
slider these evils as matter of
they have almost resigned
themselves to this fate, some of
them even considering it an honor to
patronize these jim-crow joints, Ne
gro places of business not being
good enough or classy enough to
accommodate their presence. This at
titude in the past has been attri-
outed to the illiterate class of Ne
groes, but on investigation we find
that most of these acts are commit
ed by the cultured" class, those
who think they are the upper strata
of the race, and are the only example
4lo ;11.&o,of. Nao,o hoe m fol