St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1941-12-05
LETTER RY PEARL 6. RICK

To the Editor of the New York
Times:
Your editorial of November IL,
'The Other Side of Harlem" de-
MES the basic cause for the stu
alton in our country Of which the
new manifestation of crime in
Harlem is only a symptom slight
enough for what it signifies.
Nor are the constructive meas
ures proposed sufficient. It would
be impossible for any accumula-
ton of social welfare work to solve
the situation which produces crime
in Harlem.
We all know that merely to
make arrests and impose Jail SEN
fences can be nothing but an
emergency measure and one which
promises no fundamental improve
ment for the future.
But equally palliative are the eff
forts of welfare workers on the
basis upon which they are now Or
ganized.
The reason why colored Ameri-
cans are compelled to live in
ghettos, where they are helpless
against high rents and miserable
housing, is the segregation to
which race prejudice compels them.
Race prejudice compels colored
people to take what work they can
get because there are so many jobs
colored can not get. Race prejudice
makes and keeps colored peoples
wages low because some labor I'M
ions will not admit colored labor
on the same basis as white labor.
Race prejudice and race preju-
dice alone is the root of the plight
of people in greater and lesser
Harlems all over our country.
Hope Becoming Despair
AS result of the effects of race
prejudice, very serious convic-
ton is gradually becoming settled
in the minds of colored Americans
all over our country. They are
coming to see that what they have
been taught and have believed is
not true-namely, that if colored
people can be patient and good and
show themselves obedient and hum
BILE they will inevitably prove them
selves worthy citizens and will
therefore receive the rewards of
full citizenship.
They are beginning to believe,
and this in very large numbers,
that individual or even collective
worth as human beings gains them
nothing so long as they are col
ored. The hopefulness natural to
their race is now changing to
despair.
Colored leaders are saying today
that no amount Of achievement will
gain anything for the colored peo-
pie as a whole, and that moreover,
they no longer believe the people
of the United States will fight for
democracy. Americans may fight
to live and do as they like, they
say, but not for democracy.
This conviction of some colored
leaders and many more colored
people is rapidly permeating the
whole twelve millions. When hope
is taken away from a people moral
degeneration follows swiftly after.
Young colored men and women
today are giving up hope of justice
or security in their own country.
When this hopelessness reaches
down to certain strata in any So
ciety, outbreaks of crime are in
evitable. We must expect it in
many places besides Harlem. It
has already occurred in other
cities.
The swiftness with which this
long gathering despair has come to
a present head is due, perhaps,
more than to any other immediate
cause, to the refusal of the ma
jority of defense industries to en-
ploy colored labor on anything like
an equal basis with white labor.
To the colored American this is
final proof Of the hopelessness of
his plight, that even in the defense
of his country he is not allowed his
share Of work.
Segregation Curbs Patriotism
And yet it may be a mistake to
say that this denial of the chance
at jobs is more to blame than the