Chicago Standard Newspapers - Article - Honoring 175 Years of Black Media History

11/27/2002 Part of the BlackPressUSA Network <!-- // Begin IMAGE rollovers function newImage(arg) { if (document.images) { rslt = new Image(); rslt.src = arg; return rslt; } } function changeImages() { if (document.images && (preloadFlag == true)) { for (var i=0; i<changeImages.arguments.length; i+=2) { document[changeImages.arguments[i]].src = changeImages.arguments[i+1]; } } } var preloadFlag = false; function preloadImages() { if (document.images) { // name of variable does not matter blank = newImage("Images/Blank.gif"); arrow = newImage("Images/menu/Arrow.gif"); arrow2 = newImage("Images/menu/Arrow2.gif"); arrowClear = newImage("Images/menu/ArrowClear.gif"); preloadFlag = true; } } preloadImages(); // end IMAGE rollovers // --> HOME NEWS EDITORIAL LIFESTYLE SPORTS HISTORY archives gallery timeline cartoons links ABOUT US NETWORK SITES HONORING 175 YEARS OF BLACK MEDIA HISTORY THE DOUBLE V (PT. II) George Schuyler's Commentary by Todd Steven Burroughs Originally posted 2/21/2001 Editor’s Note: The following are excerpts from a commentary by Pittsburgh Courier columnist George Schuyler. The iconoclast was the foremost Black columnist of the 1930s and 1940s and one of the paper's editorial writers. Author Frederick S. Voss described Schuyler's style as "a blend of colorful terminology, unmincing frankness, and a sometimes-withering wit." These attributes are on display in the following column, with some spelling changes and editing. It printed in The Courier on January 10, 1942. With sadness and resignation I note that many supposedly intelligent Negroes are swallowing hook, line and sinker the same bush-wah at which their fathers snapped during World War I. To wit: that once victory is achieved, the Colored brethren as a reward for their patriotic efforts and sacrifices will be promptly invested with all the rights and privileges of citizenship now denied them wherever Homo Nordicus rules..... It is not surprising that so many so-called educated Negroes of the thousandaire class are avidly absorbing this brannigan. Education everywhere being an instrument of the ruling class designed to condition the mass mind to acquiescence in, acceptance of and sacrifice for the status quo, it follows that those longest and most intensively subjected to the educative process are more ready to uncritically accept the bologna offered them..... On the other hand, Old Uncle Mose vegetating in Bumgut Alley is by comparison a sapient fellow. When white-collared phonographs occasionally come into his neighborhood spouting the White folks' propaganda he relieves himself of a silent and cynical chuckle. He may not be wise to the number of Negro farmers having pellegra in Shotgun, Ark., or aware of the incidence of tuberculosis among the Colored denizens of the alleys of our national capital.....But he does know that the Crackers are not going to get off his back, voluntarily, ever. It is this curbstone wisdom that endears me to the sable herd. Although poor, ill-housed, bulldozed by the local Gestapo, jammed into jail on the slightest pretext, rachitic, exploited, numb-brained, and unlettered, they entertain no illusions about their destiny under the Caucasian dictatorship. They believed in Santa Claus once, immediately after emancipation from chattel slavery, and suffered a grand disillusionment. They have been skeptical ever since, and nothing in their experience has tended to shake their cynicism. They know that their White folks have no intention of accepting them as brothers and sisters, friends and comrades on an equal basis, so all the bishbish about democracy, freedom and national unity leaves them as cold as a streetwalker on South Parkway. Of course it may be that the Black masses's skepticism is unwarranted and that the phonograph Negroes are correct. Maybe peace will see an end to the discrimination and insults Negroes suffer under the Stars and Stripes, Union Jack, Tri-color, the banner of Savoy, etc. I hope so. But when I see a great nation like the United States engaged in a struggle for its life and still determined to continue and even expand the racial distinctions forced upon the whole nation by the fanatically Negrophobic South, I am doubtful, to put it mildly. And unless some changes are made pretty soon in the direction of real improvement, the disinterest of the Black masses in the outcome of the current fight for democracy is going to become tremendous. Back to Previous Page Email This Story to a Friend SEARCH Click here for anAdvanced Search Contact Us: Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved :: Legal and Privacy Policy