St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-09-21

JeWish-American, the Chimes
Italian says Italo-American, the
Greek says Greco-American, the
Spaniard says Spanish-American,
and the Pole says Polish-American.
In other words, we seem to be the
only race in Americas vast melting
pot with a determined policy of
discarding a racial designation in
favor Of the place where We hap
pen to be or the land of our birth.
German-Americans of many gener-
atoms still regard themselves as
German-Americans, although born
in the U. S. A. So do the others in
this hyphenated series. They think
in the terms of the native father
land and when great national or
international crisis arise such as
the one engendered by Adolf Hit
Ter, the reason for the emphasis on
the fatherland first in the hyphena-
ton of the name here in America
is plainly seen.
All these people have native
lands or countries. Their lOyalties
to the land of their fOrefathers is
never allowed to die. In fact, it is
kept alive by the mere fact of the
hyphenatiOn of the name when they
come to America. The American
Negro by persisting in being called
that does himself no tangible good
in gaining respect from America
and the rest of the world. Of all
the minOrities in the country, the
largest, the Negro gets the least
respect as a people. Although he
alone insists that he is first of all
an American and second a Negro.
On the other hand, the German
wants to be German first and then
American. The Italian does the
same.-The Greek, the Pole, the
Hungarian, the Czech, the Irish
and on down the line. They play
the game that way and gain status
to the point where some of these
foreign-born stock become sena-
tors, congressman, ambassadors,
heads of great corporations, and
so forth. The best the Negro can
hope for if he is in the South, is
not to be eventually lynched or
chased away from his home, and in
the North to eat in an exclusive
restaurant, sleep in a nationally
known hotel, and to send his chill
dren to an accredited school of his
choice without discrimination.
This situation came to mind fol-
lowing the published story in the
N. Y. AMSTERDAM NEWS sew
eral weeks ago of how the Ameri-
can Negro stands in the eyes of
the Indian people. The question
was asked by a wealthy Indian, eff
Ethiopia were a world power, had
powerful army. navy, and air
force, and became engaged in a
major conflict with the United
States, what would the American
Negro dO?"
The question has but one answer
because the American Negro
would find himself in the front
lines with rifles and guns and other
implements of war engaged in the
business of killing up people of the
same racial lineage. It is being
done all over the world. The white
man uses the black Africans to
kill black Africans, brown Filipinos
to kill brown Filipinos, Chinese to
kill yellow Japs, and Indians to
kill Indians, all for his own profit.
However, the Indian, the native
Liberian, the native Egyptian,
Arabian, and Filipino are on a bet
ter international footing than the
so-called American-Negro because
they have ~ a land they can call
their own, (2) stature in interna-
tional politics and affairs. Because
of this native land business, the
American-Negro who in many
places is denied suffrage privileges
and even the right to exist in the
America he calls his own, comes
up a poor last in any assemblage of
nationalities on the entire national
horizon.
In other words, the Indian would
rather do business with the black
Liberian than the American-Negro
from New York City. The same
holds true with a Filipino, the
Egyptian, the Arab, and other