Jack Salzman, Cornel West Struggles in the Promised

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however regrettable the practice may be, it is hardly fair to pick only upon the
Jew[s}." After all, another argued, if only Jews altered their policies, "it would
affect their business." As the president of Morgan State University declared (referring
to Baltimore), "I would say that...the Jews are white people with all the
white people's psychology and prejudices when it comes to dealing with
Negroes." 25
While such differences of position could be found all over the country, they
were most pronounced in the south, where Jews proclaimed their commitment to
racial equality but also demanded that their representative organizations cease
public efforts for integration. Rabbi Berman described white Jewish flight from
Chicago neighborhoods in the late 1940s as Black families moved in, while a
Brooklyn delegate to the 1956 AJCongress convention complained that "unfortunately,
and it grieves me to say it, the Jews have failed to cooperate with us
[AJCongress} on very basic issues of democracy." 26 Speaking of northern cities,
the AJCongress warned in I960 that
contact between Negroes and Jews occurs most frequently along a front
peculiarly productive of friction [with Jews in positions of economic power
in Black areas. There is also}...the clash between new Negro members of
the middle class and their Jewish competitors—A [further} factor.. .is the
practice of discrimination against Negroes by Jews Genuine social
acceptance [of Blacks} by Jews is at a minimum and generally we find the
usual fear, panic and flight to the suburbs. In such situations Jews act, in
the main, like other whites.
As Walter White warned Will Maslow, "We have got a lot to do within our own
ranks, Will, and the time is quite short to do it." 27
Other tensions ran still deeper. The differential success Jews enjoyed in achieving
middle-class status left them more accepting of compromise, and less conscious
of the limits of liberalism than many in the Black community. As the
AJCongress presciently noted in I960,
Negroes are re-evaluating their alliances... .One of its results has been a
mistrust of "liberals" in the struggle for civil rights. And we must recognize,
for good or ill, that the Jews, more than any other group, are generally
so identified The willingness of Jewish and other groups to accept,
on occasion, a partial victory (because of the danger that demanding too
much will result in getting nothing) has caused resentment in Negro
ranks. They often feel that this compromises their position and demonstrates
a lack of understanding on our part. 28
Furthermore, anti-Semitism had declined far more quickly than had racism,
and what remained was primarily social and non-governmental. Racism, on the