Friction between the races : causes and cure Read online

  It has been suggested that the American continent may one day pass to the Negro. Count Herman Keyserling says in the Atlantic Monthly, "The problem is a very serious one, for if the white American continues on his present line of development, then America may end by becoming the black continent of modern days. We know today that from Paleolithic days onward there has been at least three great civilizations in Africa the original representation of which were not black. But the ruling races eventually lost their vitality. They lived too much aloof from Mother Earth."

  Three Alternatives

  There are three alternatives before the American people, white and colored:

  1. The psychology of the white people must be changed to fit institutions suited to the Negro mentality, or

  2. The psychology of the Negro must be altered to suit American life, or

  3. There must be increasing friction, the psychology of the white people becoming more and more desperate with the increasing power of a psychology different from their own.

  A lack of psychological adjustment between the races endangers all adjustments. Until there is such adjustment the more powerful the colored people become the more certain and the more drastic will be the restraints imposed to prevent the Negro mentality from making over the institutional life to suit itself. The psychological adjustment is therefore the most important of all adjustments.

  A Vital Question

  A very vital question for all mankind is, Can attitudes be changed? According to the findings of science, they can be. Miss Julia Wade Abbott, director of kindergartens in Philadelphia and chairman of the Kindergarten committee for President Hoover's council says, "Experiments with kindergarten children show that no racial hatred exists until implanted by grown people." If so strong an attitude as racial hatred can be bred from without, other attitudes can be created. Prof. Emory S. Bogardus, of the University of Southern California, says, "Personal and social progress is a matter of changing attitudes. If we can find out how to change attitudes we shall have the key to progress. "He also says, "Since race prejudice is a sentiment, it is an acquired trait and since it is an acquired trait, it may be controlled and prevented to a surprising degree."

  The social sciences demonstrate that within certain limitations human nature may be changed. The paramount duty before the Negro race is that of finding out what changes are needed in the prevailing Negro mentality to cause it to fit more harmoniously into American civilization, and or addressing itself to the task of making the needed changes. The transformed groups of mankind, the English, the German and the Japanese beckon to the America Negro to join them in their great achievement of psychological transformation.

  There are colored people in the United States, many of them, who meet all the requirements herein set forth and all other tests of good citizenship. Out of this fact we get the satisfaction that the troubles are not biological or beyond the reach of efforts. Through the banding together of this element the entire race may be redeemed.

  RECOMMENDATIONS

  We recommend that all individuals, parents, kindergarten teachers, public school teachers, racial workers; editors, ministers, boards of education, superintendents of education, and all others dealing with the shaping of thought and life make a specialty of dealing with attitudes.

  We suggest that colleges adopt a course of study in citizenship designed to give students knowledge of attitudes, practice in manifesting attitudes personally, and practice in having communities manifest desired attitudes.

  We recommend that a department of social control to deal specially with attitudes be established in connection with each public school.

  We recommend that all Sunday schools, churches and other religious organizations take note of the effect of attitudes on the affairs of mankind and devote special attention to their connection.

  As aids in this task we offer the following works by Sutton E. Griggs:

  "GUIDE TO RACIAL GREATNESS," a philosophy of civic life. Price 50 cents.

  "CO-OPERATIVE NATURES AND SOCIAL EDUCATION," an analysis of the societary mind and suggestions for developing it. Price $1.00.

  "STEPPING STONES TO HIGHER THINGS," a manual for the young and the adult. Price 50 cents.

  "MISSING LINKS, OR UNFOLDING THE WORLD'S GREATEST MYSTERY," a listing of attitudes which urgently demand correction. Price $1.00.

  "KINGDOM BUILDERS' MANUAL," A full collection of texts showing the part the Bible has played in shaping attitudes. Price 50 cents.

  Send to the National Public Welfare League 104 East 5lst Street, Chicago, Ill.,

  569 East Georgia Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee.