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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Economics - 17. The Mechanics of Economic Discrimination as a Practical Problem - 2. The Ignorance and Lack of Concern of Northern Whites - 3. Migration Policy
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386 An American Dilemma
choice. The practical objective, in the economic sphere, is to break down the
barriers against employment of Negroes, to open up new areas for the
Negro worker: industrial, occupational and geographical.
3. Migration Policy
White Northerners do not always have the Negroes with them as do
the Southerners. Negroes are almost absent, not only from the large rural
areas in the North, but also from most of the smaller cities. Many of the
small cities in the North and West have an expanding economy. Together
they constitute the most important of all community groups to which
Negroes yet have to gain entrance.® Their potential importance, in this
respect, is the greater, since other barriers to Negro employment will give
way only gradually, even in the best case. Because of such barriers the large
cities in the North may soon become—or have become already—artificially
‘^saturated” with Negro labor.
But the labor market in these small cities is at present practically
closed to the Negro. This does not mean that race prejudice is particularly
strong in these communities. But people there have few experiences with
Negroes, and Negroes, therefore, appear strange to them.*^ And enough of
the ordinary American derogatory stereotypes about the Negroes have
spread to them to make the Negroes slightly suspect, both as workers and
as citizens. Ordinary conservatism and community solidarity—which are
more developed in the smaller cities—prevent employers from attempting
to import Negro laborers. The local workers usually keep up a protectionist
attitude and are against new competition. All feel vaguely that Negroes
would be likely to cause problems—^in the jobs, in the community and in
other ways. It is always easy to check an influx of Negroes to a small all-white
town. There is little of the anonymity that a large city provides. But since
usually no employer ever takes the initiative in introducing Negro labor
into such a community, and since Negroes themselves practically never try
to get in, the white people are not forced to face the issue. They can pre-
serve a clear conscience on the matter and support legislators who follow
the American Creed in the state capital and legislate against economic
discrimination.
It should not be forgotten, however, that there are many such cities,
particularly in New England, which have a few Negroes. Usually the
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