The Omaha guide., 1944-09-02
Continental Features

educational opportunities that would
improve their status. They are ever
ready to holler discrimination" when
whites who study for improvement
arc moved ahead of them.
The unhappy thing about it all is
that our labor leadership has done
little or nothing to create more ia
vora.ble situation cut of which some
hope for the better can be seen.
Urskil1ed Negro labor has not been
sufficiently brought under control
where it can be placed where it be-
lorgs.
1t has not been thoroughly emphas
lied that "upgrading' and white col
lar" jobs are for those who are quail
flied and not for the maid, the butler,
the cook, the yardboy, or the laund-
ress, unless they have thorouhly pre-
pared for such advancement.
Soldiers Returning for Jobs M
With the postwar period figurat-
lively just around the corner and the
fact that millions of the members of
Our armed forces will be returned to
civilian life and thus to active COM
petition for the available jobs at
hand, some manner of controlling the
domestic and inSkilled labor situation
must be devised and put into operat-
ion Immediately. Among the millions
Of GPs who will be hunting jobs in
the very near future will be thousands
WHO are expecting to return to the
very jobs foolish Negroes are spurn-
ing today. White elevator operators,
white countermen,. white cooks, white
janitors and bellhops, white truck
drivers and laundresses, as we'll as
porters, will swarm all over jobs a.
variable in these categories.
The Negroes outlook should be to
keep all the jobs which have been
traditionally called Negro jobs" and
aod to them all others that he can
get. The idea should be to controI
completely the vast field of domestic
service; to be the main source OF un-
skilled labor and then press forward
il. ether fields through rapid and
thorough training of people to fill
the positions that crop up.
IF Negroes continue complaining
that they can't do this and that kind
cf work because it is too dirty, or
'dersding" or ''too heavy, they'l II
w2ke I'D one of these mornings and
fr,d Poles, Irish, Italian and other
foreign-born workmen holding down
the jobs and getting the pay envelop-
cs that would ordinarily go to Negro
workers.
Situation in Hollywood ....
IN a measure, the current campaign
III Hollywood to discourage studios
from writing, maid, servant, cook
and yard boy parts into moving pic
lures which show Negroes as tradit-
ional1y in a domestic category shows
evidence of action without thorough
thinking out the consequences. While
ali thinking people, white and colored
agree that the dis heah" and dat
Gah" dialect, and the low, vulgar slap
stick Of chattering teeth and rolling
eyes with which the movies constantly
depict the Negro must be eliminated
it is also apparent that the jobs and
careers of hundreds of Negroes ir
tie movie industry are in jeopardy il
the studios once get the idea that Ne
groes don't want to be shown as
maids and porters. In such case
it isn't hard az all to place white peo-
pie in their places.
The strategy in Hollywood would
thus tie in with a general program
Of getting and holding all the porter
maid, cook and yard boy parts in the
movies plus adding to our labor poo
such parts that call for the desired
Characterization of the Negro. Thi:
IS 2 matter of bread and meat, bee
to sleep on, and house to live in
Impractical theories and viewpoint:
about some starry-eyed hope for the
future should not be allowed to com
pete with actualities. Yet, the actual
lty Of work in the movies and in the