The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1944-03-18
EVADING THE ISSUE?

written by Dr. Reid E. Jackson, Southern univer-
sity professor in current issue OF the New Re-
public magazine and we believe this statement Is
worthy of Detrots attention. Dr. Jackson stated:
"Hope grows dim as even beral-minded whites
either evade the issue of segregation or else propose
that the Negro make his segregated arrangements
equal to those among whites. Can't they see that
they, too, are nurturing the root cause OF racial
tension?'
The city fathers who are talking about estab-
fishing model ghetto for Negro citizens on the
outskirts of town would do well, we believe, to pom
der this statement In essence it is the forced and
compulsory separatism imposed by the dominant
group which engenders hate and resentment in the
breast of the Negro. Further when tax money which
is paid to the government by all citizens without
discrimination is used to set up walled cities for
dark-skinned citizens, the Negro people find them
selves inevitably in opposition to their own govern
ment Are those who persist in limiting the freedom
of minority group sincerely concerned about ma
tional unity?
This jim crow principle in housing has helped
to create the terrific housing shortage in Wayne
County If Negro war workers were permitted to
live in the vacant housing units in the Gly-white
projects in and around Willow Run, would not the
housing shortage be relieved? Suppose that after
the war the two hundred thousand or more southern
whites who have flocked here return to their Dixie
homes? Negro citizens could not live in these empty
homes because most of them have been built in areas
where black citizens not permitted 1t is clear
that segregation itself helps to create an artificial
shortage in housing.
A Chinese wall is being built to separate cit-
zens solely on the basis of their color and this wall
grows ever higher. Every important national figure
is shouting from the house tops about the need for
interracial understanding, and yet nothing is done
to make this understanding possible What these
blabber-mouth demagogues really seem to want is
not nterracial understanding, but the Negroes &C
quiesence to white domination and control The Ne
gro American, like every other American, prizes
freedom and liberty and he resents property re-
strictions based color and race This resentment
has grown steadily stronger and it will grow stronger
still
The building of temporary ghettoes will not i'm
prove race relations in Detroit and it will not even
overcome the housing shortage In the first place
there is not enough unrestricted ground in the city
to place the Negroes We insist that these restric
tons against Negroes must be lifted and it Is the
proper function of government to see that none OF
its citizens are penaized because of prejudice. BY
creating the Fair Employment Practice committee,
the President has recognized the Negroes right to
employment according to his skill. Has the Negro
the right to buy or rent home where he pleases as
other American citizens?
What does Detroit or America hope to gain by
restricting the freedom of every tenth American,
forcing him into slum shiny new ghetto? Do
we want interracial understanding or racial war
fare? Inevitably we must move toward one of these
goals or another. Toward which goal are we moving
in the city of Detroit? These questions cannot be
dismissed with wisecrack or remained unanswered
for long On the side Of the Negro people rest all
the democratic principles which have led this nation
to total war against the Axis powers, and what is
extremely important, every black man, woman and
child in America knows it.
There many white people today who are
willing to throw overheard the fetish of white SUI
premacy" because they know that this fetish has
already helped to set the world on fire. Any nation
race of people that expects to control this earth
and the fruits thereof for their selfish ends is
inviting trouble. What is true Of the world at large
is true in own country. The true liberals in De-
troit face great challenge which must not now
be evaded.
NEGROES IN POLITICS