The Pittsburgh Press (June 23, 1942)
Racial barriers
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Pearl Buck, in a recent article in The New York Times Magazine, says:
If racial barriers stand we must be prepared for nothing but struggle.
Thus she uncovers what most of our people fear to see – the fact that Japan’s sweep through Pacific areas is due to a blood kinship with the conquered peoples. In most of the learned discussions about the behavior of India’s leaders, that vital point is missed. It gives us a sharp and painful dig but it must be endured.
Many of the people of India want so much to get out from under the white man’s domination that they are even willing to accept Japanese overlords.
This is no indictment of the white man as an individual, for he is usually just, amenable to reason and merciful in his attitudes. It is an indictment of a system of imperialism against which the people of Britain often have rebelled. It is an indictment of the methods of white men everywhere in their treatment of other races.
This is a big subject, but it seems to me it is one that women’s groups in this country should begin to study. Yet even that will not be enough unless all of us resolve to be democratic in our daily attitudes.
In order to practice what we so ardently preach, we must learn to be fair and kind to those people who have skins of different colors than our own. We can see that they get justice in our courts, and that they are decently housed and given a fair wage for their work.
In my opinion, that is the only way we shall ever promote the progress of world stability and peace, for these things cannot be done effectively by passing laws.
Before he can convince millions of dark-skinned people of his sincerity toward them, the white man must practice better democracy in daily life.