The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1945-05-23
am an American Prejudice: Our Postwar Battle

of a No Dogs Allowed ban
against the unaeeepted. Even war
time-housing projects are likely
to discriminate. IN Northern cities.
colored ghettos have become
worse, rather than better.
5y-products: Disease, Poverty,
Crime
One effect of physical segrega-
ton In slums and "shacktowns"
is oyercrowding. which in turn
produces poverty. sQualor, disease.
crime and ignorance. Here. even
such elementary needs as garbage
disposal and fire prevention are
generally inadequate.
Illness of almost every kind Is
pronounced IN the Black Belts
of virtually every city where Ne
groes have settled. Pneumonia
and scarlet fever. for instance.
hit their highest peak there. In
FAINT mortality among Negroes In
Chicago is twice as high as II Is
in the rest of the city. Among
the Hispanos Spanish Ameri-
cans) of New Mexico. the tuber-
culosis death rate is about three
times the national rate; In San
Franciscos' Chinatown, II is three
times the city's average.
In supporting segregation, as
One Nation points out, America Is
substituting social evils. When
disease in slums breaks away and
come epidemic. when anti-social
behavior created by slum living
turns into crime wave, or when
race tensions explode into riots
and bloodshed. the entire popula-
ton pays the bill.
Wanted: Equal Opportunities
Reinforcing the fenclng-in pro-
cess. economic discrimination re-
sists the efforts of our sub-citI-
zens to rise out of their "class."
A number of business firms will
not employ Catholics of Jews. The
South recognizes white mems
jobs" and "nigger jobs" the lat
ter being the servile. the low-paid
and the unpleasant. Thirty-two
labor unions either exclude Me-
groes or shunt them into Jim
Crow locals. Hate strikes have
broken out against hiring and
upgrading of Negroes, In the
North as well as the South.
Highly trained Chinese and
Japanese have been forced into
mental jobs. Mexicans and Fill
pinos generally have been con-
fined to back-breaking migrant
labor. Although the man-power
shortage and the Presidents Fair
Employment Practices Committee
have recently tended to even up
work opportunities, Widespread
discrimination persists.
Schools Are Hand-Me-Downs
AS with jobs and homes, edu-
cation is offered to some minority
groups only on inferior or sepa-
rate terms. Certain colleges and
professional schools have quo
tas" for Jews and the colored
races. The system of separate
schools for colored children, pre-
valent in the South, shows signs
of spreading to the North. South
ern schools for Negroes are
crowded, inadequately equipped;
colored teachers draw salaries
lower than those of white teach
ers. Mexicans in Los Angeles and
Their Southwest communities
have similar educational hand
me-doWns.
The Law, Too, Is Prejudiced
Inevitably. legal discrimination
has become part of the pattern
of keeping the sub-American Gin
his place." Police protection for
minorities Is frequently a farce.
Law and order" too often Is
applied to the ruling caste, class.
color and faith. When hoodlums
attack a minority groups. victims
rather than aggressors are jailed
for protection" Voting pro-
cedures like the poll tax in seven
states, or direct intimidation at
balloting or registration places,
rob Negroes and others of their
franchise.
Continued Next Week.