St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-07-28

rGCOSIllIIOu anu PAGES VI III
Negro life. Under the system
100000 Negroes are forced by ex-
listing custom and tradition, we are
getting so mixed up in our social,
economic and political affairs that
the result cannot help from being
harmful.
Negroes, aside from the rope and
faggot of the Dixie lynch mobs, are
most afraid of criticism from the
white. We have been educated to
high degree of sensitivity on this
score and consequently if a white
person looks at us for over six Sec
onds, we feel uncomfortable and
resentful, the latter depending on
whether the incident is North or
South of the Mason-Dixon Line.
When one Negro acts out of line,
we all feel it in some way or an
other. When the whole race can be
criticized and held up to public con-
demnation for its failure to differen-
tiate among its various elements
according to standards of decency
and self-respect, the entire group
feels it the hard way.
What We Trade for Glamour"
The whites are getting the idea
that we are most happy when we
can let racketeers and hoodlums
have full sway among us-espe-
cially if the hoodlums and racke-
teers give US song and dance joints,
whiskey joints, and plenty of loose
living which gets away under the
ambiguous title of glamour" The
whites think, and perhaps rightly,
that the Negro will tolerate all such
things if a mistaken idea of pros
perity is allowed to flourish along
with it. That is why our better
hotels and restaurants are the fire.
quent harbors of pimps, horse play
ers, petty crap shooters, good
timers, prostitutes, and other men,
bers of the underworld who can
thrive publicly only under a relaxa-
ton of standards and tolerance of
the community in which they oper-
ate.
The hoodlum opens a nightclub, a
restaurant, or other public place
of amusement. Our better element
(or so-called better class of Ne
groes), breaks it's collective neck
running in, getting dubious thrills
from rubbing shoulders with pick
pockets, ladies of the evening,
strong-arm men and others of low
ilk and character. But it is harder
for a Negro to rub off such contact
than for a white person. The rea-
son: Negroes live almost on top of
one another in large cities such as
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing
ton and Newark. The honest, hard
working, decent Negro family that
believes in upright living, moves
in an apartment on the second floor
and the next week house of pros
tltution is opened on the first floor
and little can be done about it.
The Whites Can Shake OFF Dirt
The white person who in his
night-lifng mingles with diversified
elements, lives in restricted resi-
dental zones where living condi-
lions are highly individual and Sc
lect. He can, in a measure, shake
the mud from his feet and walk
on the plush rug of responsibility
without leaving foot prints. The
Negro cannot. His church is located
next to the poolroom. His school
is situated in front of a house of
ll-fame. His grocery store also
collects numbers or policy slips.
His business men are constantly
under fire to lower their high stand
ards to meet the poolroom and
roustabouts competition of the
black hoodlum. His daughters have
to wade through many pimps, pros
titutes and procurers to get to
school and back home.
Police department in big cities
have come to view the situation as
one in which Negroes are getting
what they want. The cops then
are content to keep white venturers
into the unknown scene of Negro
life from harm, to protect the bust
ness places of nightly absent white
owners and give mere lip service
to the protection of life, limb and
property of the Negro denizens of
such communities and neighbor-
hoods.
What We Want Seen AS Buried
With white people constantly
emphasizing in story, song and pic
ture that the actual desires of the
great mass of Negroes is only lot
of fun, whiskey, and sex life, it is
small wonder that what we actually
want and strive for is buried al
most completely. The politicians
manipulate the strings to help the
hoodlums get in and keep in the
saddle in Negro communities. They
do so with the fact always in mind
that what protest will be made will
come too late to do any good.
Thugs, hoodlums, prostitutes, and
such low elements kept down many
racial groups new to America for
many years, but such groups got
Il a