The Phoenix index., 1941-04-12

FOr AMP
DEAR READER:
TIE article by George Padmore
in the March Crisis magazine,
moves me as much as it moves you.
Only l am moved because I know
that the article is a considerable
distortion about the character oil
the English in England, while
some of you, perhaps, may be
moved by the shocking, even the
false, intimations of the article
that the English are as bad to-
ward colored people as are the
Americans, or even as bad as Hitler
ties would be il they could.
Even the title Of George Pad
more's Crisis article is a mis-
statement: that Hitler Makes
British Drop Color Bar" Hitler has
not made the British do anything
about the color question: We might
as well say: "Eitler makes Halle
SelaSsie and Eboue and other Afri-
can blacks who have brains in their
crania, rush TO the side Of the
British and fight the Axis powers. -
If ever Hitler gets into position to
make the British do anything
about colored people, he will make
them put the Negroes into such a
hell of slavery as the world has
not yet seen.
SAT IN OFFICE
TWO years ago I sat in George
Padmore's office in London, when
the elder statesman, Mr.. Chamber
lain, was running to and fro, from
London to Munich and Berchtes-
gaden, trying 10 persuade Herr Hit
ler not to start war, for which
Britain and the rest Of the world
was totally unprepared, save alone
for the superiority Of the British
fleet.
At that time 1 told Padmore and
his radical associates, white ara
black, that it was certainly TO the
credit of the English civilization
that these black ner were able TO
keep their office open aud carry
on, Just short of treason on that
corner in London. Berlin or Rome
or Moscow, their heads would have
been in one hold and their bodies
in enother, long before war start
ed. And in Mississippi, well, in
Mississippi, so to speak, they would
have long since heen in Minnesota,
or else.
Once 1 had more than co lecture
engagements all over England. and
in Wales and Scotland in all Of
the larger cities and in many of
the smaller and even the smallest
places, where the English are Eng
lish indeed. Also 1 have been all
over the United States, over and
over again in most places( so that
this I know to be the fact: That,
the Negro, the worst place in Eng
land is better than the best place
in the United States. There is race
prejudice in both countries, and IN
most others.
When one people holds down an
other, there always develops pre-
judices against the under group,
and the Eng)ishmen, especially
those who went abroad as colon
ials, have had a long conditioning
in the business of governing dark
er races. The colonials abroad in
the empire are therefore, more
nearly like Mississippians, but the
English in England are different.
The best cities in America, from
the Negro's standpoint, are worse
than the worst places in England.
Seattle San Francisco, New York
are far behind London in the prac-
tice of liperality toward Negroes.
Seattle is almost wide-open to COL
ored Americans if they are not
Orientals), but not quite.
Two years ago in London, and
many times before. could roam
and step into any public place and
through the whole town, and stop
eat and drink. and without receiv-
ing any discourtesy could crowd
shoulder to shoulder with the
thronging English people, without
a ripple of displeasure. The only
city under the American flag that
I have so far found like that is