Segregation: A Moral Imperative

The late Richard Weaver was a rare scholar. He was a scholar who knew the limits of scholarship and the underrated value of prejudice, intuition, and tradition. In his book, Language is Sermonic, Mr. Weaver informs us that every society has "God words," words that when invoked mean more than the literal definition of the word, words that represent what a country holds dear and worships. Weaver thought that 'democracy' and 'pluralism' were two God words in our society. Every society also has its devil words; ours include 'prejudice' and 'authoritarianism'.

The word 'integration' has also become a God word in our society. To merely invoke the word silences all opposition and places a halo on the invoker. And 'segregation' has become a devil word, the invocation of which immediately results in the demonization of the person attempting to use it in a positive sense.

We refuse to accept demonization. Segregation is the bulwark of society; without segregation, society becomes a herd of cattle, a species, without a soul.

To the liberal, 'segregation' connotes Negroes in the back of the bus, cross burnings, lynchings and bigotry. And segregation might very well entail Negroes in the back of the bus, cross burnings, and lynchings, but the motivation for such actions is not bigotry, it is love. If one loves one's faith, he wants to keep the beliefs and values that stem from that faith, pure and undefiled by other faiths. Thus he places a wall between his faith and the faith of others. And when one loves his kith and kin, he wants to keep them segregated from those who are not his kith or kin.

Although it is now regarded as a given that segregation of the races is a bad thing, it is remarkable how reality has confirmed the correctness of the original Southern segregationists. What, following the war, were the fears of Southern whites? They feared that integration would lead to --

1) The undermining of their unique civilization, which if not perfect, was at least the closest attempt on the North American continent to incorporate Christianity into a social system. Integration helped undermine that civilization.

2) They were afraid that integration would lead to intermarriage, thus threatening the survival of the white race and the civilization which the whites had built. This has happened. I cannot go to any public place anymore without seeing interracial couples.

3) They were afraid that integration would lead to a reign of black revenge and terror. This has also happened.

So why are we supposed to genuflect before the altar of integration? Segregation is not evil; it allows one to practice Christianity to its fullest extent. Albert Schweitzer, a man who is never mentioned anymore because he was a segregationist and a paternalist, did more work of Christian charity for black people than any other man or woman of any color, living or dead. But he did so because he had a belief in segregation. Because his white beliefs had been kept segregated from black values, he was able to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of blacks. He could give them the values of his civilization because he, and the men before him, had kept their values segregated.

But what about the brotherhood of man? What about unity and harmony? Well, false unity is not unity. We can all abandon what we hold dear in order to be unified under false principles that nobody really believes in. Or we can adhere to principles that we hold to be true, and segregate ourselves from those who hold contrary principles. Then unity, if it comes, will come from conversion. "I think those principles and that way of life in their city is better than mine, and I will attempt to turn my own segregated city into one like theirs." And the work goes on till every segregated city has the same principles and the same spirit. Thus, true unity comes only from segregation, not integration. Integration breeds only hatred, spiritual indifference, and intellectual dishonesty.