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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 12, No. 9. August 10th 1949

What the Negro Wants

What the Negro Wants

What does the negro want? Charles C. Spaulding, negro president of the North American Mutual Life Insurance Company, a negro business, declares:

"Our capitalistic society in America depends for its growth upon bold young men willing to take a chance on pioneering new fields of service. And it bountifully rewards the skilful pioneer, whatever his origin,

"As for myself, I shall always feel grateful that my ancestors were transplanted to North America. It is the best place in the world that I have found to live and leave one's mark."

Spaulding says, in effect, the negro wants nothing he hasn't already access to. And he would clinch his argument by asking: what does the recent enrolment of hundreds of thousands of negroes in trade unions mean, if not progress?

The World War II years did, of course, open new fields of employment for negroes and broaden existing ones. The same relaxation of employment barriers may be noted during World War I, though to a lesser extent. But between 1920 and 1940 the pre-war employment pattern was reestablished in some fields, moreover, negroes lost ground. For example, the number of negro skilled craftsmen declined.

Negro intellectuals, however, increasingly look toward something outside the present economic and social system, rather than toward the long-promised reforms from within. When the status quo so obviously depends on the Machiavellian device of racialism, its victims are forced to consider ways of achieving equality not provided for under the established order.