Page:Race distinctions in American Law (IA racedistinctions00stepiala).pdf/379

 which to work injustice to the Negro. While, finally, they have been strenuously discussing the school laws, Negro children have been suffering from, not only inadequate but, in many cases, improper training by ignorant Negro teachers.

In suggesting the benefits that would accrue to the weaker race from legalized race distinctions, it is assumed that such distinctions would apply only in communities in which two races live side by side in something like equal numbers. The white people of the South should recognize the inexpediency of requiring separate schools, separate railroad and street cars, separate hotels, and separate accommodations in general for the colored races in most places outside the South where they constitute, in many instances, not more than one-tenth of the total population. The white people in the places last mentioned should recognize that it would be equally unwise to crowd together white and colored races in schools, public conveyances, hotels, theatres, and other public places in the South. Colored people everywhere should realize that a race distinction is not necessarily a badge of racial inferiority, but may be simply a natural result of racial differentiation. Race distinctions may, therefore, have a very appropriate place in communities where, as has been said before, two races are about equal in numbers, at least where there are enough of the subordinate race to arouse in the dominant a feeling of race consciousness.

Where, under the above view, race distinctions are justifiable, and are enacted into law, the people of all races should unite in demanding that the laws be fairly applied. If, for instance, the presence of sufficient Negroes make