The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1942-06-06
THE BRIGHTER SIDE

ward, having drunk deep OF the Dlter Tea Vi racld
tyranny in all aspects of social life, there Is the
Pickering ray of hope on the horizon of our con-
seriousness that sustains faith in the future.
This bloody task to which our nation has set itself
in order that all men might be free has stirred our
souls to revolt against own life of slavery and
accentuated the horror of degradation here.
Even as we sum up our great grievances, however,
we snatch desperately at every passing straw which
may be a token of progress and ultimate liberation.
We want to drown our bitterness and believe that
we are fighting for freedom and not for colossal
lie Black men, who can die but once, do not want
to die in vain.
Today, in some measure, we believe that white
America is beginning to understand our dynamic will
to live full and mfettered life within social
framework of absolute equality. The impact OF this
ghastly war upon the snug and stubborn overlords
of America has helped to blast their faith in special
destiny in special dspensation from God for their
exclusive use. An awakened East has taught the
West that no race of men can assume to hold within
its hand the proprietary interests of this planet re-
gardess of their color or previous condition. This
assumption breeds war, and until it is eradicated
from the world there will be peace. As it is with
races so it is with classes of men, and when one class
in a society assumes the sovereignty of the people,
that assumption breeds revolt.
There are signs that point to awakening
in our country on the part of white America which
help sustain our faith in the ends for which this
is being waged. Within the last three months almost
every major journal in America has attempted to
throw a new light upon Negro-white relationships.
Every important magazine and scores of influential
newspapers have published articles and special fea
lures on the Negro question. AT no time since the
Civil war has the Negro problem been given the ma
tional attention and study it is receiving today Gov
eminent as well as the rank and file of the American
people is trying to come to grips with the Negro issue
New champions of the race like Pearl Buck
Wendell Willkie Mark Ethrdge Herbert Agar are
Joining the company of Mrs Roosevelt and scores
of Others From the wealth of new literature the
Negro problem and the efforts of these new voices
there will inevitably flow conception of our
group. As these lines are written, an article from
the current issue of Fortune magazine has been
brought to our attention and another from Sunday
New York Times, both arguing for new deal for
black America.
The following paragraph from Fortune maya
zines article entitled THE Negroes War is typical
of the new writing on the Negro:
"The Negroes fate in the U. s. affects the fate
of white American soldiers in the Philippines in
the Caribbean in Africa; bears the soidty of our
alliance with 800 million colored people in China and
lnda influences the 1eengS OF countless nelghDorS
in South America In this shrunken world of ours,
fracas in Detroit has an echo in Alden, and what
southern congressman considers to be a small home
town affair actually interfere with grand
strategy"
Writing in the Sunday New York Times maya
zine Pearl Buck comments on the question, Can the
Barrier of Race Be Destroyed? She writes: IF it
cannot, then must prepare for future of nothing
but struggle and war on a stupendous scale, par
ticHiarly for the white We shall have to make
up for nferority in numbers by military prepar-
alton Of the most barbarous and savage kind. We
must prepare super-weapOns, must be willing to
destroy all civilization our own in order to keep
down colored people who are so vastly superior in
numbers and equals. in skills Is this future
which any human being wants to face?'
Similar writing may be found in practically
every publication of Importance today As revealed
above, most Of the interest in the Negro today stems
from the new consciousness on the part of white
America that the fate of the Negro affects the fate
of the world. There is reasserton of the interde-
pendence of all mankind There is growing convc-
ton that we must be given justice not only for
Justices sake but for the sake of mankind in general
a.