St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1943-08-20

y
to be a good nation, dedicated to
the brotherhood of man, but it has
never fully included the Negro in
it's political, economic, and social
system. Now, facing the problem
in an acute stage, it is unable to
plan or to act to meet the impend-
ing crisis.
The Negro problem is not new
in this country. But since the war,
as a result of the conflict of ideol-
ogies, it has become a world prob
lem, and the United States must
now do something about it. 1t must
act not merely for moral reasons,
to right the social injustices in
volved, but for motives of self
interest, indeed, of self-preserva-
ton.
We are fighting a yellow nation
which has challenged white i'm
perialism and ridiculed the sO-called
demOcracies for clinging to the no
ton of white superiority. We have
yellow nation as an ally, and we
are desperately trying to hold in
check the brown people of India.
Japanese references to our treat
ment of the American Negro en-
barrass all of our attempts at
psychological warfare. Every time
a Negro is lynched here, the Japa-
nese broadcast the event to China,
India, and South America. The
stupid racial policy of the Anglo
Saxon nations was an important
factor in their defeat in the Pacific.
The United Nations will have the
task after the war of setting up a
new balance of power based upon a
moral order which, to be workable,
must include yellow, brown, and
black people. How can America
share in this when it does not in
clude its own black citizens in the
moral order prevailing within its
own boundaries?
There is another reason why the
contradiction of caste and democ-
racy must be resolved. To develop
it's maximum striking power, in the
factories, the fields, and the armed
forces, the nation cannot ignore
one-tenth of it's people. The sheer
need for man-power is opening
more and more opportunities to
Negroes. But though many ad-
vances have been made, millions of
Negroes are still idle or working
in non-essential industries because
Northern farmers refuse to employ
them, many defense plants limit
their participation by quota sys-
tenn, and the armed forces relegate
them to limited services.
And how about the Negroes; how
do they feel? Many white persons
who have inquired have been fright
ened by the answers they obtained,
A change so profound that few per-
sons realize it's fateful meaning is
taking place in the mentality of the
American Negro. He has expert
enced of late an upsurge of feeling
which has given him a new sense
of his own dignity and of his rela-
tiOnship to world events.
The forces bringing about this
change antedate our participation
in the war. Negroes throughout the
United States were aware and re-
sentful of the rape of Ethiopia.
Halle Selassie was to them a hero,
and relatives of his in this country
addressed numerous Negro audi
ences. Various Negro newspapers
first developed mass circulation
through the appeal of the Ethiopian
issue and the rise of Joe Louis.
In the present conflict the Negro
is finding the problems of the Chi
nese, the Indians, and the Burmese
strangely similar to his own. In
this sense the Negro has become
more Observation-Disclosures than the
rest of the population. His SYM
pathy with other colOred peoples
was aroused long before the general
population had begun to question
Americas policy of isOlationism.
He came to have a certain respect
for the Japanese, who had success
fully fought three white nations,
though his hope for the representa-
ton of dark people in the Allied
peace rests with the Chinese. Re-
alizing more acutely than whites
the glObal significance of a guar
anty of democratic rights and privi-
leges to all peoples of the world,
he has broken out of his caste
bound mentality, transcribed his
purely racial point of view (Which
led him only to despair), and now
sees his position in society as iden-
tilted with that of the darker races
of the world.
The war has confronted the
Negro with situation which has
forced him to sharpen his thinking
and define for himself the role
which he wishes to play in Ameri-
can civilization. The conflict be-
tween the pressure which was fore
ing him into caste position and
the slogans for democracy which
raised his expectation of complete
citizenship have developed in him
a new critical consideration of his
position in the social structure of