American Negro and Colonial Native: Education and "Equality"

Abstract

A.MERICAN Negroes and the colonial subjects of European powers in Asia and Africa have in common their colored skins and their symbiosis with dominating white groups. Native peoples in colonial tutelage, although exposed to Western economic and cultural forces, form civilizations of their own, rooted in age-old traditions and customs. The American Negroes were torn from their original homes in Africa, where they belonged to different tribes and spoke various tongues, and scattered widely in America. No tribal organization could be retained; even family life was often hardly possible. What organization exists today is of recent development. Colored churches, lodges, and associations represent adaptations to life in America; the African background is obliterated. What once used to be regarded as genuine African heritages were later recognized as surviving from, or at least influenced by, forgotten European usages of music, magic and so on. As a result of intermixture, not even the features of American Negroes have been left intact. The social conditions under which Negroes once lived as slaves, and are still living, tend to force them into the American pattern. American civilization molds them and they partake in shaping American civilization. Before continuing these comparisons, it should be remembered how many kinds of colonies and of native peoples there are. British, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Dutch colonies are governed under different systems, and the policy of a colonial power may also differ in its various colonies. Dutch policy is not the same in Surinam as in Netherlands India, nor French administration in Algeria and in Indo-China. The wonderful fertility of British political inventiveness and adaptability has tried to make colonial administration fit local circumstances, each part of the Empire being governed in a manner peculiar to its needs. Britain's colonies run the whole gamut of climate, race, religion, level of >