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THE NEGRO'S HALF SHARE
The Negro: A Step Behind
By
Simmons Fentress
The Charlotte Observer
(December
18, 1956)
The problem of the Southern economy cannot be divorced from
the problem of the Southern Negro.
The two are intertwined, just as they always have been. If
the economic opportunity of the Negro does not expand, the
development of the South will be hampered.
The problem is grounded in numbers. Despite his heavy
migration to the North, the Negro still accounts for 26 per cent
of the South's population.
In Mississippi, where he was in the majority a few years
ago, he represents 45.4 per cent of the population. In South
Carolina, 38.9 per cent. In Louisiana, 33 per cent. In Georgia, 31
per cent. In Alabama, 32 per cent. In North Carolina, 26,6
percent.
Economically, he lives pretty much on crumbs from the
table.
He works generally in the lowest-paying jobs of the
lowest-paying industries.
In the United States, in 1949, the median income of
non-white persons was only 46.8 per cent of that of white persons.
In South Carolina, it was only 31.9 per cent. The median
income of the white person there was $1,684; the Negro, only $525.
In Mississippi, the dollars were fewer but the percentage
slightly higher. The median income of a white person in that state
was only $1,236. The Negro earned $439.
In five other Southern states--North Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana--the average was below that of
the nation.
Several factors are at work here.
Education is one of them. The level of education in the
Negro labor force is below that of the whites. The Negro thus is
hampered in his competition.
The barriers that restrict Negro opportunity are a major
factor.
Evidence of these barriers is found in figures showing that
the income differential between whites and Negroes tends to
increase as the level of education increases.
For instance, in 1949 the income of white persons in the
South exceeded that of the non-whites by 48 per cent at the level
of a grammar school graduate.
The differential jumped to 73 per cent among graduates of
high school.
It rose to 85 per cent among college graduates.
The differential were considerably narrower in other
regions of the nation.
In the North and West the median income among whites, after
fours years of college, was 59 per cent above that of Negroes with
the same education. In the South the income among whites was 85
per cent higher.
Yet the median income of whites with no education at all
was only 16 per cent above that of Negroes in the same situation.
In the North and West the spread was greater--28 per cent.
The situation can easily be understood in terms of
specifics. Suppose a young Negro graduates in engineering at
state-operated A&T college in Greensboro. He immediately faces
the fact that there are few Negro firms in the region that have
use for his services. There are few Negro construction firms; few,
if any Negro roadbuilders. In short, the avenues to employment
within his own race are limited drastically.
The chances of his securing employment of that kind with
white firms is practically non-existent. The invisible barrier
still rules out state employment, city employment and county
employment at the levels of his training. This is true regardless
of the need for engineers in these quarters.
The ultimate choice, for man, is simply to leave their
state and their region. Elsewhere they will face the same problems
to an extent, but not to as large as extent.
They take with them their education which was subsidized by
the taxpayer.
There are no hard figures on the degree of Negro migration
from the South. There is no doubt that it is great. A walk through
the trains moving up the Mississippi Valley toward Chicago and
Detroit will establish the fact.
That migration largely explains why two Southern states,
Arkansas and Mississippi, actually lost population over the last
15 years.
No one can say how many Negroes go in the interest of their
dignity or in the interest of their economics or how many from a
combination of the two.
It is not hard to establish the economic connection. The
two states, Arkansas and Mississippi, rank 47th and 48th in per
capita income.
Just as the South does not share fully in national
prosperity, the Negro does not share fully in the beginnings of a
Southern industrial revolution. In new factories he still does
menial jobs.
He has won major victories in the courts in terms of his
citizenship. His progress in the realm of economic opportunity is
slower.
That fact figures heavily in the south's economic ranking.
It will continue to do so as long as the Negro comprises more than
a fourth of the Southern population.
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 24
July 2008
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