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Civil rights and race relations materials, 1957-1964

What You Can Do About Racial Prejudice In Housing Page 11

OPEN HOUSING VS. PREJUDICE
Many authorities state that it will not be logic, but experience that will eventually lead to the elimination of racial prejudice as a major factor in American society. Experience on terms of social equality (rather than on terms of the traditional master-servant relationship) reduces the ignorance and fear that fosters prejudice.[2]
It has been estimated that as many as four-fifths of all white Americans support segregation. This is a frightening figure and one that indicates the great amount of work to be done. But it has been found that even this figure can be reduced to two-thirds among whites who have either worked or lived in association with Negroes on a par basis. And it can be further reduced to one-half among whites who have both lived and worked on a par relationship with Negroes.[3]
Thus, integrated housing can be a major force in breaking the chain of prejudice. It can provide the experience that refutes the myths of racial intolerance; the experience that proves what no amount of logical argument can prove to some people--that non-whites as neighbors are neither better nor worse than whites as neighbors, and that the color of their skin has nothing whatever do to with the matter.
But getting people to hold still long enough to have this revealing experience is a problem, as everyone who works in their field knows. Sometimes financial considerations can force people to let it happen--when their own financial self-interest overbalances their feelings of prejudice. This has often been the case in integrated housing projects where the value of the housing provided was too great to overlook for reasons of prejudice. Sometimes moral considerations can convince otherwise prejudiced people to at least "wait and see." And sometimes the feeling that there are, after all, many good people who are in favor of integration makes easier the job of con-
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OPEN HOUSING VS. PREJUDICE Many authorities state that it will not be logic, but experience that will eventually lead to the elimination of racial prejudice as a major factor in American society. Experience on terms of social equality (rather than on terms of the traditional master-servant relationship) reduces the ignorance and fear that fosters prejudice.[2] It has been estimated that as many as four-fifths of all white Americans support segregation. This is a frightening figure and one that indicates the great amount of work to be done. But it has been found that even this figure can be reduced to two-thirds among whites who have either worked or lived in association with Negroes on a par basis. And it can be further reduced to one-half among whites who have both lived and worked on a par relationship with Negroes.[3] Thus, integrated housing can be a major force in breaking the chain of prejudice. It can provide the experience that refutes the myths of racial intolerance; the experience that proves what no amount of logical argument can prove to some people--that non-whites as neighbors are neither better nor worse than whites as neighbors, and that the color of their skin has nothing whatever do to with the matter. But getting people to hold still long enough to have this revealing experience is a problem, as everyone who works in their field knows. Sometimes financial considerations can force people to let it happen--when their own financial self-interest overbalances their feelings of prejudice. This has often been the case in integrated housing projects where the value of the housing provided was too great to overlook for reasons of prejudice. Sometimes moral considerations can convince otherwise prejudiced people to at least "wait and see." And sometimes the feeling that there are, after all, many good people who are in favor of integration makes easier the job of con- 11