St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-10-27

bows the head. That's the Negro
man in the South speaking to a
white woman. The white man sees
no distinction in social, political or
business standing of Negro women.
To him they are all members of an
inferior race and to be regarded
and treated as such. To him they
are to be tolerated, not respected.
But let the Negro man fail to doff
his hat or to bow in scraping
servility to white woman! Things
will start happening fast!
The Negroes main problem in
America is still fear and ignorance
with the two fused together to make
a formidable handicap to be over
come. Behind the fear-ignorance
complex that keeps millions of Ne
groes spinning in the vortex of con-
fusion, lack of self-respect and mis-
conceptions as to his real place
in life, is the drilling into the con-
seriousness of the Negro woman a
sense of distrust of the male of her
racial stock as to his actual worth
when compared with the white man
to whom he bows and scrapes.
What Our Women Think
There is no doubt that something
happens deep down inside our Ne
gro women when their men permit
white strangers to call their wives
by their first names as though they
were children or a humanized sort of
yard dog, and then watch her hus-
band grab off his hat and go into
a rocking chair of bowling stance
when a white woman passes. She
certainly can't have any real feel
ing of pride and without pride and
respect for the head of her house,
how can she be expected to impart
sense of racial pride and dignity
to her children? She sees the man
who has vowed to protect her,
shown up as a coward. What else
can her children be? Can she teach
them to do the things their father
is afraid to do?
Fear, fear of the white man
what he will think and what he
will do actuates the Negro male
from childhood as he embarks,
mostly in the South, on a career of
servility and Uncle Tommism. At
the same time, he might be changed
completely in his attitude if he only
knew the actual depth of the fear
the white man has of him. How
ever, he, the Negro, continues to
fear he will get into trouble and
that he might have to die in defend
ing his honesty, his property and
his family from the depredations
of the shiftless, vicious, low-living
white supremacy vandals of the
Deep South.
A day must soon come when the
Negro in the South will refuse
to call the wife of a white man
"Mrs." until the white man returns
the same courtesy to the Negro
woman. Today this same Negro will
start a death fight with another
Negro who fails to show courtesy
to his wife. In this sense, then, the
situation with the white man is no
different in so far as protesting
the honor and dignity of Negro
womanhood is concerned.
Why Whites Are Cold to Us
This is one of the basic reasons
why white outlaws of the South
have no respect for the Negro. 1t
is also the reason why most we'll
meaning whites in the South see
no reason to get excited in de-
tense of the Negro to the extent
that it will cost them prestige,
money and friendship. Among these
basic things that work for ill with
Negro maladjustment in the South
is the spectacle of one or two
whites entering the home of a Ne
gro man without even a badge of
the law, searching for what they
want, ordering the frightened Ne
gro to keep his mouth shut. The
white outlaws might have been look.
ing for a Negro who talked back to
a white woman" for not paying him
what she promised for his work
But these outlaws are not con
cerned with this; they are out t.
"teach MFRS to respect white
women"
The Negro mans wife stood by