AN INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD WRIGHT
SCHMID, PETER
WRITERS and WRITING THE NEW LEADER LITERARY SECTION From EUROPE Translator's note: This is an interview with Richard Wrifht published ra Die Welt wet he, a weekly Swiaa journal published in...
...In Paris, Wright told me, he happened to meet a Negro from the French colonies...
...An Interview with Richard Wright By Peter Schmid mnmmerifi »f the Ku-Klstxers...
...Ait ts net this stntmoutnees of oppression a universal spiritual situation —m Amsriem ms mt Europe...
...After four months his nerves broke...
...My journey has been full of surprises...
...In this novel, he tells the story of a young Chicago Negro who, because of an inferiority complex growing out of tho race conflict in the United States, is led to commit an trocious murder and end his life in the electrio chair...
...First Peter Scbasid taraed Richard Wright into German...
...posed teehni*u* of survlrsl...
...But these churches are social organizations rather than bands of faithful believers...
...We hear, to be sure, of the violence of the poor-whites in the South and of the to the Negro—if the breach between preaching and practice...
...to sn interchange of ideas between an ootstanding American writer and a representatiTe European journalist...
...Do not overlook th* fact that hatred is the element in...
...Richard Wright is known here through the only one of his works which has been translated into German, Native Son...
...We ara introduced to the psychology of a people) which for generations has known nothing but the immitigable and cruel law of white supremacy...
...At the moment the Negro jazzband leader was the rage...
...The tensions have never been so sharp since the days of the Civil War...
...Wt no not know what tan futurt hosds, and th* more w* plan, tha a****' will bt our disappointment...
...Despite their wealth, they...
...But I do not foresee a catastrophe...
...must live in some segregated section...
...This translation is printed in The Sew Leader beeaaao of the iaterest attachhis...
...Do you tee any possibility of escaping this fate...
...The Negro, despite hi* formal profession of the Christian virtues of meekness and altruism, is by nature not a Christian...
...he went on in his melodious English...
...The light thrown on American culture and, especially, on our race attitudes, is illuminating...
...Among tha Anglo-Saxon peoples the confession of faith in the sac redness of individual freedom is perfectly sincere, and they are ready to fight for it . at least for themselves...
...But, really new, America is a democracy tn which the rightt of the individual are protected by the conetitution...
...WRITERS and WRITING THE NEW LEADER LITERARY SECTION From EUROPE Translator's note: This is an interview with Richard Wrifht published ra Die Welt wet he, a weekly Swiaa journal published in Zurich...
...He was brought to France as a child, grew up there, went to school and was trained as a psychiatrist...
...He went there;—a Negro from the free air of France...
...I think so...
...Tha Europeans have reached a higher stags of awareness...
...Then bin version wss turned back into English...
...This consciousness of sacrifice is developing about two opposite poles: among the whites the pole of psychological consciousness, among the blacks that of the real* istic-social...
...That we ara driving relentlessly...
...His motivation springs, not from religious faith, but from th* shared feeling of victimisation...
...Tho Negro, moreover, is no saint...
...covered our unhappiness, first in Dreiser, then in Lewis, Faulkner, Caldwell, Do* Passoe, etc...
...16,000,000 Negroes among the 140,000,000 Americans are represented in Congress by only two legislators...
...Such altruism and benevolence aa a* may exhibit are th* results sf need, a part of th* im...
...In it at bad as all thatt I asked...
...Peopla accept them on the stage, but seldom in their homes...
...It might lead to a revolutionary explosion...
...The constitution is ideal and it promised us a paradise on American soil...
...They demand their rights as human beings—and so sharpen tha conflict, And do yon see ne escape front this situation...
...Th* individual discovers thst he is a sacrifice to society...
...Becsns* Richard Wright's P*n has hmg been a major srnaaaa In torn ngbt sgslnst racial discrimination, and twang* a* haa aa unusually sensitive and Inclslv* ahai, wa ar* presenting bis views on a number *f Important topics...
...Their inferiority complex is gone...
...During th* twenties American literature finally die...
...I expected to see a decadent,' hungry, dying continent, and I discover that here I not only eat well but that the spiritual life is extraordinarily active—especially in Paris...
...But in this situs* tion there is a source of healing...
...The terror of the Gestapo, ho said to me, was child's-play by comparison...
...This sort of enforced duplicity extends into tho cultural world...
...The sleepingcar porters in the Pullman cars -ara thought of as the best-trained and most docile Negroes, but precisely these men are the moat rebellious, and belong to tba most militant union...
...It is true that th* Baptists and Methodists count 9,000,000 members among the American Negroes...
...In sdditiwa, la Europe- Hi* tw* best-ksnrwa work* ar* Native Son and Blech Bog...
...The reader is asked to bear in mind that what he has before him is the result of a donate translation...
...And hatred grows...
...Equality...
...It seems t* ms that w* have here, at least far tho tnttQeetuaU, a bridge from the world of the blacks to that of the whites...
...Often he expresses himself, not as he actually is, but as the whita man wants him to be...
...The demobilized...
...I sat really frightened st the extent to which the French are losing themselves in abstractions, at the way in which they forget the struggle for bread in the struggle for ideologies...
...It is so immediately and insistently painful that it is impossible to assume an attitude of spiritual i contemplation, to regard the situation aa an example of human tragedy...
...He laughed...
...These ar* positive forces to which w* must .pp*al to And a way out of tha idaolefieal erta...
...There is a degree of suppression for which ther* is no sublimation...
...Thoy return, as different men...
...yes, the Constitution gives us the vote, a right which, in some sections of tba South would give the* 9,004,600 Negroes the majority...
...Yes, that's just it...
...When the Germans moved in he naturally joined the underground...
...Freedom...
...Eight Negroes have been lynched in a single month...
...This hectic situation is dangerous...
...But the most notable thing about American life—and not only in relation rr^HE other day when Richard I Wright was making some purchase* in i Zurich shop, the young lady attendant who waited upon him asksnl shyly: "Are you Don Redman...
...When be can't, hi* resentment will stew and grow within him...
...His picture decorated the walls of all shops, restaurant*, hotel...
...Does ¦not Chnstiatuty offer submission and freedom of the spirit within the conditions of material oppression as a way of release for all the weary and heavy ladden.' Sadly he shook his head...
...Humanity, is now forced toward the point at which it must make a decision to change tha basis of its existence...
...As you suppose, this parat* lei development affects on both sides only the narrow circles of those wha are alive to the present spiritual situa* tion...
...Every ordinary mortal passant* something which Is precious, wife and child, a pi*** of land, a littlt nous...
...It is a strange and fearful world which is revealed to us in this book, a world of tha despised, oppressed, pursued...
...Yes, they have won recognition as artists but not as human beings...
...There yon are right...
...But does net this suppression dictate a positive attitude toward fate...
...But never forget when you hear the jazz or the spirituals that back of them simmers bitter rebellion...
...le it not, for example, possible that Negro culture as demonstrated in the fields of music, the domes and literature, will to permeate American life that it will draw together ike fie* opposite poletf Have not a long list of Negro artists, Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, etc., broken through roe* lines in securing recognition of their artistic achievement...
...Human rights ara for the whites, not for us...
...The suffering which is st the heart of it schools us to recagnlse the actuality, and th* technique of survival which I s**n« tioued aa a part of th* Negro's reaction to his actuation will develop in th* broader field of th* whom human raw...
...When ho is struck, he does not turn the other cheek...
...Among young American intellectuals the visit df Sartre has not been fruitless...
...He fought to bravely in the guerilla warfare that after the liberation the French Government gave him a distinguished service medial and, . as further recognition, awarded him a scholarship for study in 'the (ISA...
...People read my books, but beyond that they want no dealings with me...
...toward a decision no one can deny...
...Bat hasn't the War, in which tha black troops fought betide the whiten, in which black workers gave such a good account of themselves in the factories, furnished a mean* of bridging the gulf between ths races...
...For actually this individualism has been developed on the basis of th« suppression of an entire race into menial service...
...As to the infiltration t>t Negro culture into American life, don't overlook real distinctions...
...Wright laughed, laughed a clear, free laugh without bitterness...
...Never forget that suppression has robbed the black man of hi3 character...
...So you see similar pictures in Europe and America...
...RICHARD WRIGHT m th* well-known American novelist who I* wU*qr toad...
...soldiers come home, look for work— ami see Negroes who, as a result of war enditions, have been able to work their way into better positions...
...1 am not smiling," he answered, "I am just showing my teeth...
...I know this from personal experience...
...At the same time the most distinguished Negro writer of America was dwelling among ns without attracting the attention of any but a few devotees of literature...
...He could not stand the way the Negroes were treated over there...
...In general, Americans, despite their writers, carry their malaise as something undefined within their consciouanesa—like an invalid who conceals his symptoms from his physician...
...The mors they vote, the less they get...
...On both continents W* go in the direction of catastrophe...
...The realities of life constantly deteriorate...
...All that w* can do Is to keep allvt our faith in th* natur* *f tilt human animal...
...On the contrary...
...Then yen have the impression that Knritpe, despite its apparent rshnnstion, still has something to say to the world...
...And how about the demobilized Negroes...
...which tha Negroes live, the hatred of the disdisinherited from which no black man can isolate himself...
...In tho Army many of them lived a fine life— in some cases as masters of white people...
...Hh ntsjor eoalrifcutlon la a ceaseless probing of Negro conaclsasnss* and) of tha attests of saargiaal living impasted aa social and racial bodies en mate...
...Because the whit* American likes to picture the Negro as happy, go-lucky or lyrically sentimental, tha Negro, who is by nature a good actor, 1 plays the part that is expected...
...I once asked a colored waiter who seemed especially hearty and friendly in his work, why he smiled all the time...
...The harden sf tmietemee," te quote Hsidtggsr, is one of th* fundamentals of StisttntiaUsm...
...But just for that reason, means have been found to keep our people away from the poll...
...When he can, he will strik* back...
Vol. 30 • February 1947 • No. 5
