Black America 1970

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Richard Nixon has so far shown himself hostile to any sweeping efforts to help blacks catch up with whites. He has, in effect, advised patience and self-restraint. "It is time," he said in his 1970 State of the Union address, "for those who make massive demands on society to make some minimal demands on themselves." The President senses, Nixon's aides explain, that black demands, black protests, the riots of recent years, have strained white America's capacity to accept racial change. There must be time, he feels, for acceptance of the vast upheavals in law and custom that have taken place. Clearly, there is some reason in this argument—which also happens to be politically productive for Nixon. But it is not an argument on which to base moral leadership. Nixon has a tremendous opportunity for such leadership; as a Republican President, he can do things a Democrat might find difficult. The welfare reform bill, introducing a modified, if modest, guaranteed annual wage, is one example. In its pragmatic way, the Administration has made some other significant moves. Yet such accomplishments are far outweighed by other acts: the go-slow on desegregation, the attempt to dilute the Voting Rights Act, the Haynsworth and Carswell nominations, the general lack of warmth, concern and responsibility for blacks on the part of the White House. When Presidential Adviser Daniel P. Moynihan counseled "benign neglect" in his now famous memo, his stated intention was only to remove hysteria from both sides of the racial struggle. But the phrase seems to describe the Administration's attitude on race in general— and most blacks even question the accuracy of the word benign.

Nixon's call for a pause, a timeout, seems to have the approval of many, if not most, white Americans, who are weary of high taxes for social improvements, fearful of black competition for jobs and housing and terrified in many cities by the specter of black crime. It is not fair to attribute all this only to white racism. Conscious and unconscious racism is indeed widespread and cancerous in the country. But in many cases white Americans are not so much racist as selfish or indifferent or trapped in circumstance and history as much as the blacks themselves. It is not always easy for whites to understand that black crime hurts mostly other blacks and that it is often the result of desperate poverty and urban chaos, for which the blacks are not to blame. It is not always easy for whites to realize that the violence of black rhetoric, the calls of "get Whitey" and "kill the pigs," spring from a deep wound caused by 31 centuries of blatant injustice and from a feeling that polite, peaceable methods have not worked. Despite violent language, the vast majority of blacks realize that actual violence ultimately hurts the black cause. Most black leaders are now committed to militancy short of violence. Considering their grievances, America's blacks have been more patient and less violent than the white world had any right or reason to expect.