Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-06-01

w lAlS IhC plIShG VI IhC oO-SoA
that of the white person in that
classification, too much emphasis
has served to becloud a vexing sit
uation in which the Negro masses,
those who work mainly with their
hands, are left to shift for them
selves.
Of course, there is much lip serv-
ice paid to the Negro masses,
sanctimonious protestations of this
and that by the top laborers in the
interracial vineyard; much news
paper space devoted to reporting
long-winded speeches made to ex-
elusive white groups in some lily
white hotel from which Negroes are
usually barred as a tradition, and
an expedient.
But the actual work that must be
done to lessen the pressure on the
Negro farther down the ladder has
hardly begun. In other words,
there seems to be a desire to use
the Negro masses with whom the
average Negro intellectual or white
collar classman is distinctly I'M
familiar) as a cause celebre for
gaining personal points, such as
advancing ones own selfish aims,
feathering ones own nest, ETC., etc.
Strange as it may seem, most
of the real, honest-to-goodness
work among the Negro masses is
being and has been carried on by
white people who voluntarily go
into novels, walk-up apartment
buildings, into sharecropper shacks
to carry education and aid in good
health, spiritual guidance, and les
sons in good citizenship.
The little real missionary work
that Negroes should carry on
among their own is mainly re-
stricted to a scattered few among
the ministry, to one here and there
among those of US who realize the
problem and actually attempt to do
something about it, and to a few
among the social service workers
who really believe in what they are
doing.
The white collar class is pitifuliy
small and should be in no position
to swing all advantages of changes
in public attitudes and benefits
from government and social pro-
grams to themselves.
The white collar class, while GER
tainly deserving of consideration,
should not be allowed to get a
disproportionate play with the ma
jority of the Negroes left outside
looking in.
The theory here is that the white
collar Negro, as well as the intel
lectual, is tied firmly to the most
miserable Negro living in a shack
on a farm in the bowels of Missis-
sippi.
He cannot unite the knot and live
a peaceful, worthwhile life because
he will always be haunted by the
thought that out there are people
of his blood and color who are dis
eliminated against because of color
while he is living a hermitical exist
ence by renouncing his own for the
dubious advantages that come to
the Ras Gugsas and Simon Judas.
A reorientation of thought is
needed urgently today to cope with
this problem. If any Century Of
the Common Man" is expected to
come out of this period, then the
Negro most certainly should be in
a physical, moral, and economical
condition to participate in it.
In such an era as envisioned by
Henry A. Wallace, the small, tight
class that lives abundantly while
the masses slave, scuffle, and suf-
fer, can't very well exist. Our best
bet would be to integrate more
closely. Drop the I-don't-want-to-
Observation-Disclosures idea s
and work ceaselessly to bring all
Negroes to a higher level.