X THE PROBLEM TRADITIONAL IDEA OF THE NEGRO The Negro, as a slave, was looked upon as property rather than as a human being. This was the status of the vast majority of Negroes in the United States until the Civil War. The black slave was naturally thought of as inferior to the free white man. He lived a different life, moved in a different world. He was forced to serve and was subject to his master's orders, to his jurisdiction, and his punishment. Such a condition determined the conduct of the white man toward the Negro in the days of slavery and in the later days of freedom. It helped to form his opinion of Negroes as a people. It made him inclined to forget that Negroes, like white men, differ widely. Some Negroes may be criminal, inferior, common, and immoral, but other Negroes are honest, law-abiding citizens of good mentality, refined tastes, and high standards of morality. It is only as individuals rather than as races that the white and Negro can be satisfactorily compared. Yet as generalizations are the only feasible methods of comparison, certain wide-spread characteristics are attributed to the two races as a whole. A large number of their members who partake not at all or only in a slight degree of the ascribed qualities are thereby stigmatized or complimented. RACIAL INFERIORITY The question of the Negro's inferiority must be approached with caution. Certainly as a a race he is to-day inferior in economic, political, scientific, and artistic achievement. Whether this inferiority is innate or the result of circumstances has not been conclusively proved. Before the latter part of the nineteenth century, there were few Negroes with the education or the chance for education which is necessary for the achievements of most people. To-day, the average Negro does not have the same educational opportunities as the average white man. This is partly the result of his economic condition, partly the RACIAL INFERIORITY 148 consequence of inferior schools. Even with an education and the advantages of wealth, the Negro meets with definite racial discriminations. He is handicapped from the beginning. Should he advance as far as the white man similarly placed, he would do so because he was the white man's superior and had overcome barriers unknown to his white competitor. Often the barriers are insurmountable. Even the man of exceptional intelligence cannot hope to overcome them for there is always a white man equally clever and intelligent to precede him. The discriminations do not account however for the lack of racial development found among the half savage Negro peoples of Africa. Why have the centuries rolled past leaving them almost untouched? To the white races those same centuries have meant a steady growth in civilization, in power, education, freedom. Are the climatic conditions to blame for this seeming lack in the Negro race? In a different climate with different surroundings and new associations, could the Negro race, given an equal opportunity, ever develop as has the white race? These are questions answered in different ways by different people. Some anthropologists claim the Negro is not inherently inferior and that other causes have produced his seeming inferiority. Other authorities argue that he is, and still others think the question as yet unanswerable. Why should the Negro average a lower standard in intelligence tests than the white man? Is it because he is actually of a lower mental caliber? Is it partly due to his economic condition, his training, his lesser advantages? Are intelligence tests a criterion? We know that the tests have been only fairly successful in separating the feeble-minded from the normal, and in ascertaining degrees of intelligence in normal human beings they are still in their early stages. Many quantities enter in which vitally influence the outcome. The handicap of unfamiliarity with the English language and American customs is a partial reason for the often low record of foreign races. Health, environment, economic status, parental influences, worldly experience these and many other factors may affect the result. As Negroes seldom have equal chances with whites, as they usually come from poorer homes, they would naturally be more likely to attain a lower average in intelligence tests. Yet when groups of white and colored children with comparatively the same environment are considered, the whites still excel. Can the different racial heritages of the two groups and the fact that the tests are arranged for white children be responsible? These conditions must all be taken into consideration. When this is done, it may be said that intelligence tests point to certain conclusions. The Negro race taken as a whole seems to be mentally inferior in its present stage of development to the white race. Some Negroes are however superior to some white men. These Negroes are not necessarily mulattoes. But mulattoes, like white men, attain a higher average in intelligence tests than full-blooded Negroes. Army tests showed that the average white man surpassed the average mulatto, and the average mulatto, the average fullblooded Negro. While 20 to 25 per cent of the Negro recruits equaled or exceeded the performance of the average white soldier, the great mass was inferior. Those Negroes having the most white blood, as shown by the color of the skin, obtained a higher average score than those with less white blood. A summary of the test showed, roughly speaking, that 20 per cent of pure Negroes, 25 per cent of those three-fourths Negro, 30 per cent of true mulattoes and 35 per cent of quadroons equaled or excelled the whites' average. A counteracting influence in the poor-showing of the Negroes was their illiteracy. This might tend to handicap them in the intelligence tests. There was more illiteracy among the dark Negroes than among the mulattoes and more among the mulattoes than the whites. The literacy standard was "ability to read a newspaper and write any sort of a letter." While three-fourths of the whites could qualify under this standard, but one-third of the Negroes were able to do so. The proportion was greater for the mulattoes than for those of a darker color. Was this illiteracy the result of discriminatory causes which prevented the Negro from securing an education? Was it because of inertia, lack of ambition, and other traits making for racial inferiority? Was the mulattoes' greater literacy due to his white blood or to his greater advantages? Were the possible advantages accruing to the mulatto obtained because he was superior to the pure-blooded Negro? The performance of the mulatto which for whatever cause was superior to the fullblooded Negro would seem to substantiate the contention of those who believe the mulatto to be the black's superior, to furnish the leaders of the Negro race, and to complicate the race problem. 1 MULATTO ELEMENT If the white race has, as it claims, a racial antipathy to the Negro, if the color, features, and general physical appearance of ▲ Scientific Monthly, June, 1921, pp. 533-543. Article by G. O. Ferguson, Jr. the black are repulsive; if the white race is superior and wishes to preserve its racial integrity, where did mulattoes come from? Evidently all members of the white race did not feel that innate revulsion which would prevent racial amalgamation, nor did they have the conscience or foresight to appreciate the result of their act. Such a revulsion may exist in large numbers of persons. It may be strong enough to prohibit any sex relations in the majority of instances, but in others, it does not prevent the crossing of the color line. Social stigma is perhaps a stronger deterrent than natural revulsion. Its influence may be seen in the fact that members of the best families have been the parents of illegitimate mulatto children, while only the lower elements of the white race have ordinarily been parents of legitimate mulatto children, a paradoxical situation arising from perverted ideas. In the one case the relationship, temporary and clandestine, was often successfully concealed, or if suspected, tolerated. In the other, though it was open and legal, it brought ostracism and disapproval even from the low class to which the white person usually belonged. Such a condition was the result of several factors. Many states have laws forbidding intermarriage between whites and persons with Negro blood. These laws express the attitude of the majority of white persons toward miscegenation. Sometimes they do not prevent but rather encourage the very thing they seek to avoid. Under such laws, the white man can sin with the colored woman and seldom suffer any punishment for his act. On the Negro woman falls the burden and care of the illegitimate child. Were the white man forced to marry his colored mistress he would hesitate long before he had relations with her. He would not care for the continued, close association, the social ostracism, the loss of position which marriage would entail. Social stigma would restrain him in whom natural revulsion was seemingly missing. Though crossing the color line by whites is probably less frequent than it used to be owing to the developing public disapproval of clandestine as well as open relations, the numbers and proportion of mulattoes in the Negro group increased steadily until 1910. This increase was due in large part to intermarriage between mulattoes and between mulattoes and blacks. From 1910 to 1920 there was a big decrease both in the number and proportion of mulattoes. This decrease can only be accounted for by inaccuracies in the census. It is inconceivable that no natural increase among the mulattoes took place during this period or that large numbers either died off or moved away. Part of the discrepancy can be explained by the fact that in 1910 many of the enumerators who took the Negro census were Negroes. They could more easily detect a trace of white blood and would be more careful to ascertain whether a Negro claimed such blood than would the white enumerators. In 1920 there were fewer Negro and more white enumerators. The latter were probably less careful in respect to differentiation of mulatto and black with the resultant diminution in the size of the mulatto group. * Includes 18,636 Negroes enumerated in the Indian Territory not distinguished as black or mulatto. Figures not accurate as deficiency in southern states where the majority of Negroes concentrated. The mulatto in the Negro group is the living consequence of a racial blunder. Part white, part black, belonging to neither race, yet forced to the status of a Negro if his colored blood can be detected, he is restive within the color line. He is apt to be more bitter, more eager to break down racial barriers than his darker brother. He wishes to cross the line to that white side to which he may be more closely allied by his feelings, training, and heredity than he is with the black. Forced to bear the brunt of an act of which he is entirely innocent, he is an element in the Negro population which cannot be ignored in any consideration of the problem. He has helped to develop the Negro's growing spirit of race consciousness. His talents bounded by the color line, his pride injured by the race whose blood he can partly claim, he determines to advance the cause of that other race by whom he is accepted and with whom he is wholly classified. NEGRO RACE CONSCIOUSNESS Negro race consciousness has slowly evolved since the emancipation of the slaves. Possibly even in slave days the common status of the Negroes, their associations, and their hardships |