ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes some of the main factors which determine the position of the Negroes in the urban labor market. The picture of the economic situation of the Negro people is dark. The main practical problem must be how to open up new possibilities for Negroes to earn a living by their labor. There is nothing in their general ideologies which would support economic discrimination against Negroes. Prejudice and discrimination show up devastating social effects only when viewed from a broader perspective. The breakdown of discrimination in one part of the labor market facilitates a similar change in all other parts of it. The vicious circle can be reversed. There is a tremendous initial resistance to overcome when attempting to place even superior Negro labor in a plant where Negroes did not work formerly. Negro labor is often superior to the white man's expectation, partly because the thinking in averages and stereotypes makes him underestimate the individual Negro.
