Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Author’s Preface
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
practical details and has, with Keppel, contributed most in terms of moral
support and advice. Both Keppel and Dollard have read the manuscript
and given me their criticisms and suggestions, which have been very
valuable.
For the content of the book, I am solely responsible.
The scope and main direction of this book will be explained in the
“Introduction.” There are, however, some few notes of a more personal
character for which the proper place is at the close of this preface. To
invite a foreigner—someone “in a nonimperialistic country with no
background of domination of one race over another” who, presumably “would
approach the situation with an entirely fresh mind”; I am here again
quoting Keppel’s first letter, August 12, 1937—to review the most serious
race problem in the country, is an idea singularly American. In any other
country such a proposal would have been defeated by afterthoughts of
practical and political expediency. Many will deem it a foolish idea. But
more fundamentally it is a new demonstration, in a minor matter, of
American moralism, rationalism, and optimism—and a demonstration of
America’s unfailing conviction of its basic soundness and strength. Early
in the course of this work, when I had found out the seriousness of the
task before me, I proposed to Mr. Keppel that a committee be formed of
a Southern white, a Northern white, and a Negro. In such a group we
could have allowed for political considerations and worked out a basis for
practical understanding, to which each one could have subscribed, since the
representation of different viewpoints would have accounted for the
intellectual compromises involved. This was, however, not at all what he
wanted. He told me that everyone would generously help and advise
me—and there he proved right—but that I would have to find out for myself,
and upon my own responsibility, the truth in the matter without any side
glances as to what was politically desirable and expedient.
This book is the result. Let it be added at once that the author does not
have any pretension of having produced the definitive statement of the
Negro problem in America. The problem is too big and too complicated,
and also things are rapidly changing while one writes. Time has, as always,
been a limitation. When I now leave the work, I know that many chapters
could be improved. But apart from such shortcomings, there is a more basic
relativism which the reader should keep in mind. Things look different,
depending upon “where you stand” as the American expression runs. The
author fully realizes, and hopes the reader will remember, that he has
never been subject to the strains involved in living in a black-white society
and never has had to become adjusted to such a situation—and that this
condition was the very reason why he was asked to undertake the work.
He was requested to see things as a stranger. Indeed, he was asked to be
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
