An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy
"An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy" by Gunnar Myrdal examines the profound contradiction between America's foundational ideals of equality and the stark realities faced by African Americans in the 1940s. Myrdal highlights that, despite the widespread belief in equal justice, black Americans were largely marginalized, often relegated to impoverished conditions as laborers or sharecroppers. His work explores the systemic exclusion of African Americans from political processes, particularly in the racially segregated South, where they faced limited opportunities for economic advancement and social interaction.
The book delves into the entrenched norms of segregation, illustrating how they were selectively enforced based on race, often leading to harsher repercussions for black individuals than for whites. Myrdal critiques the pervasive myths justifying segregation, such as notions of racial inferiority and unworthiness, which served to perpetuate inequality. He argues that these beliefs were not only unfounded but also self-reinforcing, as the lack of access to education and economic opportunity created a cycle of poverty that was then mischaracterized as a reflection of inherent traits.
Myrdal's insights resonated widely, influencing opinion leaders and contributing to the early momentum of the Civil Rights movement. His analysis set the stage for pivotal legal and social changes, such as the desegregation of the military and landmark Supreme Court cases that began to dismantle the institutional barriers to equality. The work remains significant for understanding the complexities of race relations and the ongoing struggle for civil rights in America.
An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy
Identification Sociological study that exposed the stark contrast between the restrictive lower status assigned African Americans in the America of the 1940’s and the pervasive American belief in equal opportunity and justice
Author Gunnar Myrdal (1898-1987)
Date First published in 1944
Renowned Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal documented the inferior status of African Americans in American society. By presenting a stark contrast between the American creed of equal justice and the constricted opportunities offered black Americans in segregated America, Myrdal brought the dilemma to the attention of opinion leaders and effectively undermined the rationalizations for racial segregation.
In An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy, Gunnar Myrdal points out that ideals of equal justice and liberty are widely shared in America as an “American creed.” However, black Americans during the 1940’s were relegated to a lower caste in society. The vast majority of “Negroes” were poor, either seeking out a marginal existence as southern farm laborers or sharecroppers or employed in cities as unskilled laborers. Black professionals and small-business people were comparatively few in number and economically marginal. By being excluded from Democratic primaries in the one-party South, African Americans were effectively excluded from any real political influence there. In the southern states of the Old Confederacy, racially segregated schools, churches, social clubs, hotels, and restaurants minimized genuine and spontaneous interactions between black and white Americans. Myrdal notes that the norms supporting segregation were differentially enforced. A violation that might be overlooked if initiated by a white person would be followed by threats and legal sanctions if initiated by a black person.
Americans dealt with the glaring discrepancy between their ideal of equality and the reality of inequality in several ways. Since most large rural states in the North and West had few African Americans, this dilemma was not very salient to many Americans in these states. A common belief in the segregated South was that black people were by nature, simple, undisciplined, and unintelligent. Therefore, segregation saved the races from embarrassing conflicts and preserved harmonious relationships. Myrdal observed the almost visceral fear advocates of racial segregation had of interracial marriage, which would, they feared, lead to the degeneration of the race. Myrdal noted the speciousness of these assertions, which, he argued, use the results of segregation to justify it. Denied educational and economic opportunities, a black person might appear poor and uneducated. This lack of education was then employed to attest to the black person’s “low intelligence” and this lack of economic opportunity to “laziness.” Even the expressed horror of defiling “racial purity” by interracial marriage was, Myrdal argues, based upon a fiction since a lot of interracial mating, often instigated by white planters, had already occurred.
Impact
The first edition of Myrdal’s book sold some 200,000 copies. Myrdal’s arguments became familiar to such opinion leaders as presidential advisers and Supreme Court justices. The book was assigned in many college social science classes. In the late 1940’s, African Amercans could never forget their color, but, beneath the surface, the laws supporting racial segregation had already begun to erode. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the U.S. military. In the late 1940’s, Heman Sweatt, an African American applicant to the University of Texas Law School who was denied admission because of his race, argued in Texas courts that segregated education by its very nature prevented African Americans from being afforded equal opportunities. In June, 1950, the Supreme Court agreed in Sweatt v. Painter. The ferment that was to explode into the Civil Rights movement was already gaining momentum. Guiding that movement were the ideals of the American creed articulated by Gunnar Myrdal.
Bibliography
Clayton, Obie. American Dilemma Revisited: Race Relations in a Changing World. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996.
Myrdal, Gunnar. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1944.
Wahl, Ana-María González. “From Old South to New South? Black-White Residential Segregation in Micropolitan Areas.” Sociological Spectrum 27, no. 5 (2007): 507-535.