St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-10-06

Gated that DR.. Overstreet was
fiction writers and psychologists in
relation to the Negro problem to-
day. DR.. Overstreet said, GLOW
we behave toward people is chiefly
determined by the images we have
of them. If we have been taught
to regard people as untrustworthy,
shiftless, of no account, or con-
genitally inferior, we inevitably
tend to treat them as if they were
really that way even though they
may be quite otherwise. The image
is more powerful than the reality.
This applies with particular force
in our relations to the Negroes. It
is inconceivable that whites can
ever do full justice with the Ne
groes' solution if they retain the
images of them that they have
held in their minds. These images
have wrought immeasurable harm.
"The image of the Negro as a
kind of clown with comic turns of
speech and ridiculous behavior has
robbed him of dignity. The images
of him as lazy, childishly depend
ent, and dishonest has excused US
from having confidence in him;
while the images of him as vicious
and sexually irresponsible have put
him outside the pale:
Traits Not All Racial
'No doubt, each of these traits
is to be found among individual
Negroes as each is to be found
among individuals of any group
particularly group that has been
kept outside the opportunity-struc-
ture of organized society, but to re-
gard these traits as if they were
typical of the Negro race has been
most unfortunate. Writers and
speakers who have thus regarded
them have committed the fallacy
of generalizing from too few par
ticulars."
DR.. Overstreet, in this profound
and learned piece, declares that in
estimable harm has been done the
Negroes by professional humorists
who have made him into a literal
laughing stock. In this connection,
it might be said that there is a
tendency on the part of the aver
age novelist and writer, who is
white, to deem the Negro as child
like in behavior and in character;
he is always laughing with eyes
rolling, feet shuffling, teeth show
ing and, as such, he is a comic
piece de resistance of any literary
menu. According to the doctor,
even writer's "who have no particu-
lar anti-Negro or pro-white bias
have frequently done the Negro
disservice."
Create Stereotype Negro
ATTRACTED by his engaging side,
they have magnified this in their
stories, thereby creating the stereo-
type of the easy-come, easy-go,
laughing over-generous, hedonistic
child of nature. This may all
seem very innocent, and bright"
observed DR.. Overstreet, but he'd
onistic child of nature is hardly
the kind of individual the white
man trusts to build a strong So
ciety. These images, and others
like them, have added and built up
a false estimate of the Negroes ac-
tual and potential powers. They
have made it hard for the white
man to see the Negro save through
a haze of misconceptions"
These findings, as propounded by
DIR. Overstreet, are OF great sig
nifcance to all Negroes because in
them are perhaps the key to the
answer to the disturbing problem
of creating the right point of view
in the white mans eye of the Ne
gro minority in this country. It
is principally through the written
and spoken word that opinions are
made solid or CONCEALED for pos
terity. The fact white children,
from infancy have read stories
about "Little Black Sambo," Little
Black Mumbo," "Ten Little N rs"
later graduated to "The Leopard
Spots" by Thomas Dixon and ''The
Clansman," also from the bigoted
anti-Negro pin of Dixon; and to
Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With
the Wind" the youthful white can
not help but have the conception