A group of social anthropologists directed by Allison Davis of the University of Chicago went to Old City and Old County Mississippi during the Great Depression to study the amount of racial prejudice existent in the Deep South of the United States. Old County and Old City were selected because the economy is based on the old cotton plantation system. Old City contains a population of roughly 50% black, 50% white, Old County contains a population of 80% black, 20% white. Apparently, two types of social order exists within the Deep South. A class system based on sociological factors, status or income, and a caste system based primarily on race.
"A caste may be defined as a endogamous and hereditary sub-division of a ethnic unit occupying a position of superior or inferior rank or social esteem in comparison with other sub-divisions."* This clearly does not denote a class system which contains upward or downward social mobility. A caste system allows for no such mobility because members of different castes cannot intermarry. Therefore, competition exists between castes for control of power. One caste will assume a superordinate role, another a subordinate role. In our present discussion the white race is disproportionately dominant and "all social institutions in the South including family, school, association, clique, church, and so on, are formed to fit the dominant caste social situation."**
In this paper the situation will be viewed as the social order existed during the study and as a afterthought speculate about what kind of conditions might be evident to change the social pattern.
The White Ideology: Keeping the Black Man in his Place.
It is a prominent belief along whites that blacks are a illiterate group, incapable of learning, child-like in their behavior, unmanageable people. This belief is demonstrated through caste sanctions and behavior. Blacks are expected to pay deference to whites. If a black and white person meet on the street, the black person is expected to give way. When addressing a white man, a black man must use the adjective "Sir," to denote respect, while a white man must never show respect to the black man. Violations of this caste sanction is considered "rebellion." After a series of minor infractions of the caste regulations, "whipping parties," or in some extreme cases "public hangings" are initiated to demonstrate to other would be offenders the "correctness" of the white cast ideology.
Endogamy and the Caste Sexual Taboos
Sexual taboos exist in the caste system to support the law of endogamous marriage but they vary depending upon the sex and color of the person involved. Due to the notion of white female purity, any acts of sexual intercourse between white females and black males violates the strongest sexual taboo and warrants a terrible punishment. If discovered, white females will either be publicly whipped, hanged, or "put on a train.". Sexual intercourse between white men and black women is permitted, if the relationship is conducted covertly. Most sexual encounters of this sort are for profit, the black female is paid a wage. But in some cases white men actually have black mistresses and families they support for life.
The implications of sexual intermingled castes is clear. If the white man could incorporate his children into the white caste group the caste distinction based upon race would disappear. But caste endogamy extends also to children. Children born miscegenation are always placed into the mothers caste group. The effects of this law are discussed more thoroughly in the section on black social class groups.
The White Social Class System
The white class system is rooted in ideological differences. The white upper-class group pay deference to "old wealth," or the amount of time money has existed in the family. Middle-class groups base their ideology in morals, middle-class people place a high value on wealth, and emphasize the "need to improve." Poor whites distinguish themselves on the basis of "consistency of a job," for a great many lower-class families are either unemployed or are working on work relief programs. Class differences are rooted in antagonisms. A sociological death and re-birth is needed to leave one social class and enter another. This involves severing old ties, abandoning old modes of behavior, and incorporating new ones.
The base of class, then, is to distinguish who does and who does not belong. A person trying to enter the middle-class may be excluded due to lack of demonstrated middle-class qualities. A person wishing to climb from middle-class to upper-class may be excluded for lack of "old wealth."
The Effect of Miscegenation on the Black Class System
The black caste base class antagonisms primarily upon three factors; income, occupation, and race. Because black elites have no clearly defined occupation or income guidelines, to identify with, blacks often turn to race as a qualification for higher status. The degree of a persons skin color as a value is the result of two basic problems. Blacks are discriminated against in the labor market, and for psychological reasons. "The effort of black upper and middle-class individuals to maintain or to increase their class status appears to be equated psychologically with a attempt to acquire the traits of the white caste. The distinguishing traits of the white caste are skin color and hair type, so it is to be expected that whiteness of skin and straightness of hair will have value as a class sanction in the black group."*** Black upper-class members designate commonness to lower-class blacks partly on the possession or lack of these white characteristics. Also, a notion exists in black groups that blacks with a more pronounced negroid tint are regarded as unclean. Black nurses with more pronounced white attributes were found to be washing their hands quite frequently and expressing disgust when handling darker black patients. A white doctor exclaimed, "Why they abhor those people worse than I do!"
The Changing Economy
Old County's economy depends on cotton. Cotton cultivation requires a long growing season, (210+ days) and a large group of skilled and unskilled workers.
When a tenant rents from a landlord in Old County he or she either pays a fixed cash or lint payment. This is largely dependent upon two factors, The number of people in the tenants "squad," or the number of people in the tenants family, or whether a tenant has his or her own implements or farm stock. This is fundamentally important when viewed in context with uncontrollable changes in Old County's economy. During 1934-35, a large boll weevil infestation destroyed a majority of the crop. That year the harvest was so low as to force a large number of tenants into the newly developed industrial firms in Old City. The entire economy suffered from deflated cotton prices as a result of the Great Depression. The Federal Government began the cotton reduction program.***** This caused a labor shortage. Landlords soon found themselves competing for labor. The tactics landlords used to keep labor on the farm and still maintain profit included economic or physical intimidation, or violence upon the tenants to keep them in a perpetual state of peonage.
Literate tenants cannot challenge the plantation system for several reasons. (1) Blacks are excluded from holding political office and in most cases are excluded from the polls. (2) Blacks are excluded from buying land. (3) Blacks cannot sue landlords for theft. (4) Black testimony is considered invalid in criminal cases. (5) The police ignore black civil or criminal complaints. Whites exclude black participation in the most fundamental and basic institutions in the United States. Therefore, all law, legislation, political platform, and judicial decisions favor the white caste.
Conclusion: Death of the Plantation System
The plantation system cannot endure. Old County is no longer isolated from the world of technology and industrialization. When the system of agriculture changes planting more acres of land by share croppers to tractors and fertilizer, a great number of farm workers will no longer be necessary. Migration from Old County into Old Town will change demographics and culture as well. The standard of living will improve. This will prompt educational opportunities and stimulate class awareness. The result is certain, the entire cultural restructure of the Deep South.
Footnotes
*Please refer to page 3 for more details.
**Please refer to Chapter 1.
***Page 235
****The Federal Government placed a limit
on the number of acres a planter could grow in cotton to stabilize cotton prices. Those acres not grown in cotton were compensated for in subsidiary payments.
No comments:
Post a Comment