St. Paul recorder., 1961-07-07

community. The reason Is prevail |
ence. And this prevalence will not
become less through suppression of
the facts.
Negro leadership in this country
is getting better rapidly. More and
more young Negro professional
men and women are becoming ded-
icated to the rights, welfare and
improvement Of their own people
We are seeing the effects Of this
in Tulsa. The shuffling, grinning
white mans niger" with his
comic sef-depreciation, is vanish
ing, and the annual outpouring of
dignified colored high school and
college graduates is raising the
tone.
But Negro leadership Is still far
below its proper level. Too many
Negro policy wheel kings, who
have robbed their people shame
lessly, are vocal supporters of Ne
gro rights" Too many metropoli-
tan Negro newspapers which
speak editorially Of the new Negro
dignity, deluge their readers with
sex, sensationalism and phony|
charm, dreambook and aphrodisiac
ads. Too many Negro politicians,
who pose as the protectors of their
race, seem to model their behavior
on Hulan Jack and Adam Clayton
Powell Jr. Those who preach uplift
should stop the down-push.
For the Negroes role in America
is tough enough as it is Here is
the only place in the world where
the Negro finds himself a size
able minority among Anglo-Saxon
traditions of behaviour and per-
formance. Among the French the
Negroes find no such clash. In the
easy and lax Portuguese-Italian
tradition of Brazil there is no con-
flict. But the Anglo-Saxon way of
living and the traditional Negro
way Of living have been poles
apart. The rabid white supremacist
cites this clash as proof that Ne
groes are basically inferior, cursed
with low mental horsepower and
built-in responsibility.
Where" asks the white sup
remacist, maliciously, was there
ever a great Negro civilization 4?
Where did Negroes ever develop
by themselves art, architecture,
engineering, law, medicine or
science even palely comparable to
those of other races ?"
Racial Morale a Factor
But the civilization of Western
Europe of which we are so proud
didn't get under way until after
the Roman conquest of Britain
and Gaul. Prior to that our Eng
lish Germanic and Scandinavian
ancestors were no more advanced
I than the blacks Of Timbuctu. And
1000 years is but the snap of a
finger in the development of races.
No anthropologist of reputation
holds to the theory that Negroes
are slightly subhuman.
Yet the Negroes do lack some
thing. Perhaps the clue is in
Freuds term I'D" I'D" is defined
as a reservoir of instructive hu-
man impulses" 1t is a discipline
and morale factor built into races
over many generations, that goes
far deeper than family history or
current environment
The peasant looks up at the
crumbling castle on the hill and
his I'D" is strengthened by the
memory of past glories. The child
reads the ancient writings of long
gone ancestors and subconsciously
he sets a standard for himself. A
man is disciplined without know
ing it by the measure of his pride
in what he sprang from. Every
great, noble and admired human
being scatters i'd seeds that will
grow among future generations of
his people. The Negro is short on
id. His history is brief and cloudy.
His traditions are vague. He
doesn't have much to live up to.
1t takes time to build esprit into
a people, particularly when rela-