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

VIII h1fO OO4A1CG11411S W say
about the treatment at the box
office of patrons who are members
OF his own race. His contract pro-
vides that in each city a certain
percentage of the best first-hoor
seats must be put at his disposal.
He means, of course, to make them
available to Negroes.
Though the law in a great many
places expressly forbids such dis
elimination, the practice of dis
Greet managers everywhere is to
tuck Negro patrons away in obscure
corners. In New York they are al
most never seen on the lower floors
of playhouses. The pretense is that
only such seats were available in
the racks when the Negro appeared
in the box Office line. But everyone
must be aware, when he sees Ne
gro isolated in rear seat well over
to the right while great stretches
of seats are empty in a middle sec
ton, that tact has won another
battle for bigotry.
The Negroes themselves accept
this situation with a patient docil-
ity that must mask amusement or
bitterness or a mixture of both.
They know that they are being
taken on a ride into the outskirts Of
illegaity. But it is better not to
make scenes. All too well ac-
quainted with humiliation, the lone
and unsupported victim of this in
justice decides that there is no
point in making people uncom-
Portable.
But isn't there a point in max
ing people uncomfortable when
their comfort is achieved by allow
ing them to sit very firmly on the
rights of others? Is there not a
point at which tact, even in small
matters, becomes a contemplate
betrayal of principle?
Paul Robson thinks that there is
such a point and being a vigorous
minded man with a sense of drama,
he has found a way of making his
great prestige as an artist a
weapon for the defense of the hui
man rights of his people.
1t is not small issue that is in
volved in this matter Of segregat-
ing Negroes in public places. Psy-
biologists know that the basic re-
quirement for the mental health of
an individual is a sense of personal
worth. When a racial majority,
with every advantage of numbers
and prestige to protect its own
rights, goes deliberately about the
project of making a minority group
feel inferior it is blindly, perverse-
ly and cruelty undermining the
mental health of that group. That
is dangerous situation as anyone
must realize who has tried to I'M
derstand the bitter lessons of this
war. No society can develop har-
moniously in which clashes between
racial groups are encouraged.
These comments are addressed,
not in SNUG, pharisaical conviction
of innocence to the southern COM
munities of the United States, but
in humility and humiliation to
northern communities where racial
hostilities have been developing
mad strength. Three American
cities have banned the novel,
Strange Fruit" Whatever rea-
sons they offer for this act the real
motivation is the fear that the
sympathetic tone of the book in
dealing with the problem of Ne
groes may win converts to its view.
Two of these timorous, angry,
tight-ipped cities lie very far
north of Mason and Dixon's line.
They are Boston and Detroit, COM
munities which seem to have so
great an appetite for violence that
they will import the luxury of
prejudice from any distance.
In a private conference where
the problem of tact in dealing
with racial prejudice was lately
under discussion, Frances Board
man offered the suggestion that
people who confess to feeling
prejudice against the Negro be
reminded that they ought in all
logic and dignity to refrain from
benefting in any way by the
achievements of Negroes. They
should not permit themselves the
pleasure of seeing Paul Robson
act or of hearing Marian Ander-
son sing. They should be scrupu-
lous to accept no protection to
health from the scientific discover
les of George Washington Carver.
Few people realize how acute
and immediate would be their dis
comfort if this principle were ac-
tually to be put into practice. The
greatest authority on blood plasma
serving the United States and Great
Britain today is the American Me-
gro, DR.. Charles R. Drew, head Of
the department Of surgery at
Howard university.
It was DIR. Drew who, under the
sponsorship of the American Red
Cross, set up the blood donor
centers in New York and then ex-
banded the project to cover the
whole country. The man or woman
who is terribly, terribly sorry" but
who Gust can't help feeling" that