Book Reviews and Notices : Colour Prejudice. BY SIR ALAN BURNS. (London: Allen & Unwin. 1948. Pp. 164. 12s.6d.)
| Published date | 01 September 1949 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591294900200338 |
| Date | 01 September 1949 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
456
Colour
Prejudice.
BY
SIR
ALAN
BURNS.
(London:
Allen
&
Unwin.
1948.
Pp.
164.
12s.6d.)
It
is
frequently
alleged
by
anti-imperialists
and
their
fellow-travel-
lers
that
British
colonial
officials
are
completely
out
of
touch
with
their
charges
and
have
no
sympathy
with
their
problems.
Sir
Alan
Burns
is
a
former
governor
of
the
Gold
Coast
and
has
served
in
the
Colonial
Service
in
both
West
Africa
and
the
West
Indies.
Despite
this
background,
his
Colour
Prejudice
provides
the
complete
answer
to
these
jaundiced
critics.
At
the
same
time
it
constitutes
valuable
ammunition
against
those
who
assert
that
the
Negro
must,
of
necessity,
be
inferior
to
the
white
man
in
every
way.
Sir
Alan
defines
racial
prejudice
as
&dquo;the
unreasoning
hatred
of
one
race
for
another,&dquo;
and
he
believes
that
this
hatred
is
most
marked
be-
tween
races
of
different
color,
and
particularly
between
black
and
white.
He
suggests
that
the
resentment
of
the
Negro
against
the
white
man
de-
pends
on
the
large-scale
seizure
of
land
by
white
settlers,
legal
discrimina-
tion,
and
white
insults
and
social
discrimination.
The
author
points
out
that
white
people,
often
unthinkingly,
cause
great
harm
by
unnecessary
insults
of
colored
persons;
thus
too
many
writers
still
print
the
word
&dquo;Negro&dquo;
with
a
small
&dquo;n,&dquo;
while
too
few
realize
what
rancor
is
caused
by
talking
of
a
Negro
woman
as
a
&dquo;Negress.&dquo;
Sir
Alan
maintains
that
it
is
the
insult
rather
than
the
exclusion
inherent
in
social
discrimination
that
rankles.
As
examples
of
legal
discrimination,
he
cites
the
proclama,
tion
concerning
Natal
issued
by
Queen
Victoria
in
1843
which
forbade
legal
disqualifications
on
grounds
of
color;
nevertheless,
in
1935
only
one
Negro
inhabitant
possessed
the
vote.
Similarly,
the
Women’s
Enfranchise-
ment
Act,
1930,
extended
the
vote
to
white
women
only,
with
the
result
that
the
anti-Negro
movement
in
the
Union
of
South
Africa
made
itself
stronger
than
before.
The
book
is
filled
with
quotations,
but
they
are
not
all
directed
at
showing
white
discrimination
against
the
Negro.
Sir
Alan
constantly
re-
fers
to
the
fact
that
half-castes,
quadroons
and
the
like
are
more
anti,
Negro
than
the
whites,
while
in
the
Negro
Republic
of
Liberia
nobody
can
become
a
citizen
or
hold
land
unless
he
is
of
African
descent.
This
latter
requirement
reminds
one
of
the
way
in
which
the
American
Nationality
Act
of
1940
tends,
subject
to
certain
special
exceptions,
to
make
it
im-
possible
for
non-Caucasians
to
become
nationals
of
the
United
States.
All
those
who
believe
in
any
form
of
racial
prejudice
show
at
some
time
or
another
inconsistencies
in
their
arguments,
and
this
is
as
true
of
the
color
problem
as
of
any
other.
Sir
Alan
shows
how
fallacious
are
the
arguments
of
those
who
oppose
miscegenation
on
the
grounds
that
it
re-
duces
the
quality
of
both
races
and
yet
at
the
same
time
contend
that
the
Mullato
is
superior
to
the
pure
Negro.
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