Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hurston Pet Negro System
Hurston Pet Negro System
works both ways. Class-conscious has had them before him in litera-
ness of Negroes is an angle to be ture and editorials and crusading
reckoned with in the South. They journals. But the other side isn’t
love to be associated with “the qual- talked about by the champions of
ity” and consequently are ashamed white supremacy, because it makes
to admit that they are working for their stand, and their stated rea-
“strainers.” It is amusing to see a sons for keeping the Negro down,
Negro servant chasing the madam look a bit foolish. The Negro cru-
or the boss back on his or her saders and their white adherents
pedestal when they behave in an can’t talk about it because it is
unbecoming manner. Thereby he is obviously had strategy. The worst
to a certain extent preserving his aspects must be kept before the
own prestige, derived from associa- public to force action.
tion with that family. _ It has been so generally accepted
If ever it came to the kind of that all Negroes in the South are
violent showdown the orators hint living under horrible conditions
at, you could count on all the that many friends of the Negro up
Colonel Carys tipping off and pro- North actually take oifense if you
tecting their Iohn I-Iarpers; and don’t tell them a tale of horror and
you could count on all the John suffering. They stroll up to you,
Harpers and Aunt Sues to exempt cocktail glass in hand, and say, “I
their special white folk. And that am a friend of the Negro, you
means that pretty nearly everybody know, and feel awful about the
on both sides would be exempt, terrible conditions down there."
except the “pore white trash” and That’s your cue to launch into
the “stray niggers," and not all of atrocities amidst murmurs of sym-
them. pathy. If, on the other hand, just
to find out if they really have done
III some research down there, you ask,
‘ ‘What conditions do you refer to?"
An outsider driving through a street you get an injured, and sometimes
of well-05 Negro homes, seeing the a malicious, look. Why ask foolish
great number of high-priced cars, questions? Why drag in the many
will wonder why he has never heard Negroes of opulence and educa-
of this side of Negro life in the tion? Yet these comfortable, con-
South. He has heard about the tented Negroes are as real as the
shacks and the sharecroppers. He sharecroppcrs.
odds are better than even figures available on time lost in ci-
THE
that you or someone you know vilian industries by reason of fun-
has been troubled by a fungous gous ailments, a fair approximation
skin disease. Small germs classed as can be made from the research of
“fungi” cause the common foot ail- Dr. Louis Schwartz, of the Office of
ment often called “athlete’s foot,” Dermatoses Investigation of the
and are responsible also for many United States Public Health Serv-
skin eruptions of the hands, the ice, Whose careful Studies disclose
upper thighs, the crotch, the arm- that more than 70 per cent of in-
pits and other large skin-folds. Such dustrial diseases in this country are
eruptions may affect still other skin skin diseases. Most leading derma-
areas and sometimes spread over tologists recognize the fact that
the whole body. Fungous skin dis- fungi play a réle in industrial Skin
eases, in brief, are exceedingly com- troubles, either as direct causes or
mon and they may be disagreeable, because they soften up the skin’s
disabling and diflicult to cure. defenses against irritants and infec-
Right now, the prevention and tions other than fungi, and thus in-
treatment of these diseases is dou- itiate, complicate or prolong other
bly important because they are disease processes. As for the Army,
responsible for much time lost in available I940 statistics Show 8.5
the war effort by both soldiers and admissions to the sick list per every
civilians. While there are no exact thousand men on duty. Applied to