St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1938-04-15

Still C
This was the day for new
race, but this Negro did not realize
it, and so many of US who use the
same tactics in modified form are
still clinging to the antiquated Gus
tom of the other century. Our dis
tinguished leaders have long talked
of maintaining the same personal
relations between the whites and
blacks as they existed of old when
every white man had some one
Negro to whom he would listen.
This is the very thing that we do
not want to continue. Such per-
sonal relations are narrow and
selfish medieval attachments, and
favors obtained thereby work out
to the great detriment of the Ne
gro.
Through the Back Door
The white man who listens to
only one Negro as rule selects
for such confdant on Negro af-
fairs his washerwoman, his janitor,
or his butler. He would not dare
speak to an intelligent Negro on
anything. This unprepared Negro
is called upon to decide serious
matters of education, business, or
public policy when he knows moth
ing about any of these things. The
oppressor who thus deals with us
desires in this very way to show
his contempt for the race in direct
ing the Negro through the back
door. ~
Religion Technic Obsolete
Another technique which the Ne
gro can no longer use in infuenc-
ing his oppressor is that of reli-
gion. This once worked well when
the white man believed in the prin-
ciples of Jesus of Nazareth and
lived in the fear that a man had
to account on that final day for the
deeds done in the body, but the
white man Of our time has dis
carded all this as a sort of Santa
Claus myth. He still promotes re-
ligion that it may work well among
the Negroes while he proceeds to
the contrary. Among the whites
the church is merely social cen
ter, a political convenience, and
they often use it to combat the
principles of Jesus of. Nazareth.
Hits NJ. E. Merger
At the same time efforts under
the cloak of religion have tended
to develop to the contrary to the
undoing of the race. The recent
merger of the Southern and North
ern Methodist churches supplies a
striking case in evidence. The
Methodist church split during the
ante-bellum crisis on the question
of slavery. At that time a faction
of that church believed that it was
wrong to hold slaves and accepted
the Negroes as brethren, but now
all the Methodists, North and
South, believe that the Negroes
should not be accepted as brethren
The two factions now propose to
set the Negroes off to themselves
where nevertheless they will be un-
der supervision of their oppressors
Another WORKOUT technique is
that of politics. Not politics in the
true sense, but the manner in which
the Negro has permitted himself
to be used by others politically
Since emancipation the large ma,
jority of Negro voters have beer
satisfied in seeing three or -four
Negroes given five or six thousand
dollar jobs while they stand around
in bread line. Recently Negroes
have shown little more wisdom in
| fighting for measures rather thar
men.
Must Be Good Citizen
Finally, the Negro must cease to
look entirely to those efforts which
are organized wholly from without
The old techniques for the solution
of his problems no longer count in
the equation. Personal relations
even in the South have tended To