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Show Racial Solution Not Satisfactory Editor's Note: Dr. Phillip Sturges of the history dept. today writes to the same question Dr. Ray Canning addressed Thursday: Can the U.S. solve its racial crisis? By DR. PHILIP C. STURGES Dept. of History The racial crisis will be solved that fact is inevitable, for human beings cannot live perpetually in chaos. But whether the solution will be the most satisfactory possible is doubtful. I see the current situation between Negroes and white Americans as essentially one in a trial-and-error stage. Non-violent resistance, black nationalism (separatism), civil rights legislation at the national level, and ghetto violence mostly aimed at dramatic attention-getting to the problems prob-lems therein are being attempted sometimes all at once. Thus far, none of these methods has really worked. Professor Ellis Rivkin, in a recently completed series of lectures on campus concerning the dynamics of Jewish history, emphasizes his belief that intolerance of Jews disappears when Jew and non-Jew are workifi" j side by side in a burgeoning growth economy. Perhaps this is where Ik i best eventual solution to Negro-white relationships lies. j The rationale back of this theory is that preaching, dramatics ot coercion will be of little or no use, but that shared economic responsibilities responsi-bilities and prosperity will rather automatically eliminate ethnic and racial tensions. t . Let us assume for a moment that Professor Rivkin is correct. Immediately Im-mediately it is obvious that an economically useful role must be found for our twenty-odd million Negro-Americans. They cannot remain on relie rools or in menial tasks that produce and pay too little. Their producta? must be vital and indispensable. Only then will they be so necessarjta American society as a whole that prejudice will disappear. I do not pretend to know what that role for our Negro citizens will be, but perhaps Negro and white leaders might set their minds to discovering dis-covering it. Patience and more painful years may be consumed in the effort, but, after all, the current attempts will take time to get any) results if they ever do get any. : : 1 |