The Michigan chronicle. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-current, 1945-10-20
THE FALSE FACE

All of us are familiar with stories Of inmates of
insane asylums who fancy themselves heroic fig
ures bughouse Napoleons Last week we were re-
minded that all Of the nuts who suffer from such
illusions of grandeur are by no means in asyums
For instance, the football team of Mississippi State
literally murdered the team from the University of
Detroit last week by Of al to g. This victory
was won by Mississippi State, partly If not wholly,
because the University of Detroit left its star player
at home to keep from offending the racial sensbli-
ties of the Southerners.
AS result the Mississippi boys can now pre-
tend that as far as the Y. Of D. is concerned they
are champions and heroic players The racial su-
periority myth is kept intact for these MISSISSIPPI
plans and Guy Brown, the Negro star at y. of D.,
who made five touchdowns in the two games prior
to last weeks contest, never had chance to chal-
lenge their illusions.
This illustrates what we mean when we say
that the myth of white supremacy is built upon a
pack of lies Prejudiced white Americans have al
ways lived in fear that Negroes will call their
premacy bluff. To make that it won't be called
they do what the coaches Of the University of De-
trot did, eliminate the occasion for doing it. Their
sense of craftsmanship requires that Negro par
tcipant in the game of life must have his hands tied
behind his back
The whole system of segregation which sets
Negroes apart from whites in every conceivable
sphere of social living was created to buttress the
illusion of white superiority. When Mark Etheridge
of the Louisville Courier-Journal declared that all
the armed might in the world would not m k e
Southerners give up segregation, he indicated how
deeply prejudced whites fear farplay. They know
that true equality of opportunity would destroy
white supremacy.
All Americans denounce the cheater, the guy
who plays with loaded dice Yet prejudiced whites
have used every device their diseased imaginatons
could invent to cheat and rob Negro Americans of
the rights and opportunities that are sacred to all
mankind. Many whites who proclaim they are not
prejudiced have played into the hands of these
cheaters even the coaches of the University of De-
troit. If the War Department had bowed to Hitlers
demand that Negro troops be withdrawn from the
European front, its action might have been likened
to that of the U. of D.
We can be thankful, however, that growing
legion of white Americans have joined the struggle
against hypocrisy, against the group Of crooks who
fear fairplay. These emancipated whites know that
the great American team cannot take its rightful
place in the world by keeping its stars who might
happen to be colored on the bench. They know that
in making war and keeping the peace Americas
black millions be assets if given the chance. In
tight contest, they might even produce the margin
Of victory
The biased, Jim Crow philosophy which DOM
mates so much Of American thinking crippes the
nation and it points the way to national suicide. II
democracy fails in America it will be because the
American people refused to give it a chance. The
time is coming when our democratic pretensions
will be called into question all over the world Be-
heve it or not, world peace and our national welfare
hinge upon whether we live up to the equatarian
principles of democracy or continue this tragic mas
querade. We have got to stop living out lie and
trying to pass it off for truth and virtue. We have
got to stop kidding ourselves with false face
WELL WELL. WELL