The Omaha guide., 1935-08-10
ON THE WARPATH

= 49, hAO0Nocy IiidI PlCfCiLoS liz
from mentioning the fact that | once
held a job as a sports writer. it's the
fear that somebody will turn back
the pages of a certain newspaper
ard dig out the fact that | lost a
good job for referring to Fritz Pol
lard as a great prizefighter and to
Howard Drew as one Of our out
standing football players. The next
week / was back on the police beat.
Since that time my essays on sports
have been strictly limited.
But | think that the time has come
for me to speak out again and throw
caution to the winds. The recent ex-
ploits Of Jesse Owens and Joe Louis
demand it. There remains little
doubt that Owens is the best Splinter
in the business and that Louis is not
champion simply because he hasn't
fought James Braddock. What I'm
on the warpath about is the treat
ment of these trumphs at the hands
of the Brain Trusters who indict
colEmns for the Negro press.
Dissenting Opinion
The essence Of the treatment is
found in a recent column by Roy
Wilkins, editor of the Crisis. Mr..
Wilkins recently discovered that ath-
letes of this type are ambassadors of
goodwill. "In a single afternoon,
he thrilled, Jesse Owens did more
to advance the cause of ace rela-
tons than a box-car of Du Boises.'
There was more to the same effect.
AS the lawyers say, l want to enter
my dissent.
Wilkins argument is based on the
old notion that if you can prove to
the whites that Negroes are not in
ferior all will be peaches and cream
down in Dixie. He argues in effect
that it is because of a belief in our
inferiority that we are lynched,
segregated and Disseminated against
Cart Before The Horse
The cart is before the horse. Let
sports commentators Of this kind &c
their histories and learn that lie.
groes were enslaved IN America long
before the theory of their inferiority
was born. AS slavery became more
and more profitable in the South and
subject to ever more bitter attacks
from the North the theory of the
inferiority was born to justify it
Every conceivable argument wa.
seized on.
The theory has been extended anC
kept alive since abolition because i
fits IN with the present practice OF
keeping the Negro tisd to the sol
or at mental labor. And both of those
things spell profits to a few Ameri-
cars. White workers partake of the
nonsense because they have beer
taught to believe that it is the Ne
gro who keeps them poor.
Down To Fundamentals
1t isn't hard to see that if you de-
stroy the economic reasons for keep
ing Negroes down you strike a body
blow at the whole superstructure of
inferiority theoees. Side by side
with this attack on the economics of
our enslavement must go an attack
on popular beliefs that we are less
than human. But if you had a ma
chine that was turning out imperfect
products you wouldn't waste all of
your time on correcting each refec-
tive article; you would try to remedy
the machine itself. That's our case.
| know dozens Of Negroes who ex-
celled at sports. Most of them are
having a pretty tough time making
ends meet. And the students who
follow them at their schools are dis
eliminated against in the same old
fashion. Eddie Tolan was Michigan's
ace sprinter; Michigan turned right
around and barred Willis Ward from
the basketball team Michigan is
going to keep right on doing such
things until the Negro people help
destroy the foundations of the sys-
tenn thet holds them down.