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Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
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CHAPTER 2
ENCOUNTERING THE NEGRO PROBLEM
I. On the Minds of the Whites
When we say that there is a Negro froblem in America, what we mean
is that the Americans are worried about it. It is on their minds and on their
consciences.
To begin with, the Negro is a problem to himself. If a multitude of
first-hand random observations, such as we have made over the whole
country, are any evidence, the contented Negro, whose mind is at peace
on the race issue, is a rare phenomenon. As a generalization he is definitely
a myth. Whether the myth was ever wholly true in the past, I cannot say.
It is evident, however, that for a long time the Negro protest has been
rising. This trend became sharply accentuated during the First World
War. The present War will, in all probability, increase their discontent
with their status in America.
The Negro problem is working on the white man^s mind too, even, and
not least, when he wants to convince himself and others that it is settled
for all time. The problem has varying degrees of importance in different
regions, depending partly on their historical backgrounds and on the
relative proportion of Negroes in their populations, as also in different social
classes and under different religious, educational and ideological influences.
Over large areas of America where there are few or no Negroes, the Negro
problem is of minor importance to the people living there. To these
ordinary white Americans, the only reason why the Negro problem has a
higher salience than, say, the problem of British imperialism in India or,
earlier, the Irish question, is his citizenship in the United States and,
consequently, his feeling of national responsibility. The frequent reminders
in the press and in public discussions of the practice of lynching and the
agitation around the proposed anti-lynching legislation, the reports of
Negro criminality, the continuous recollections of discrimination in educa-
tion and in the labor market, and just now the public discomfort around
the racial angle of both the larger world conflict and the war efforts at
home—all constantly actualize to some degree this feeling of responsibility.
This national participation in the Negro problem should not be exag-
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