Solving Racial Problems

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31727, 10 July 1968, Page 14

Solving Racial Problems

“Racial problems of the United States are purely a matter for study in New Zealand: no country has any right to interfere in the affairs of another,” said Mr Justice Thurgood Marshall in an interview in Christchurch yesterday morning.

However, well meaning people were best employed in meeting their own problems. Mr Justice Marshall said that many people in many countries “get in a sweat” about affairs in others but the solutions to problems almost always must be found at home. "I hope I say that with due regard for Africa,” he said.

Indeed, Africa was a good example. When he went there to help the coloured peoples, he was listened to politely and then told: "You may go.” Mr Justice Marshall ' replied that he would stay, and those he came to help switched into Swahili. "When I finally left, they asked if they could help us—these emerging nations.”

Mr Justice Marshall said he did not predict race riots in the United States this summer. The assassinations of President Kennedy, Dr Martin Luther King and Senator Kennedy, plus the carnage of earlier riots, had cooled a lot of misplaced ardour.

The violent groups were much smaller and had a much smaller following than might be suspected from radio and television. Mr Justice Marshall said he was continually amazed that white university campuses paid such as Stokely Carmichael $l5OO to $2OOO for addresses in which he simply “cussed white people.”

Mr Justice Marshall said he believed the United States Constitution provided for all, but it would take time to get its intentions and the Supreme Court’s rulings through to every local authority. Even Washington and Congress were slow in this. If the Vietnam war stopped tomorrow, many congressmen would want the huge funds saved for their own pet projects rather than improving housing, education, or employment for Negroes among others.

This was a point many missed, he said. If housing,

education, and employment for all were improved, there would be less squalor for Negroes among others. Mr Justice Marshall said he had not sought (in earlier posts) gains for Negroes alone. “I am only prejudiced against anything that deprives anybody else,” he said. But he did not want or expect everybody to be the same. “It would be a dull world if everyone was the same colour and everyone loved each other,” he said with a laugh. Mr Justice Marshall said racial and other labels should be eradicated, so that there would not be “bad white landlords” or “disgusting black tenants” but just bad landlords and disgusting tenants. Both came in all colours. Mr Justice Marshall said he did not see answers in a welfare state. The United States’ reputation, leadership, and economy were all based on a capitalist form of government. There would be no basic change. Mr Justice Marshall and his family spent about an hour at a reception at the United States Navy base at Christchurch Airport yesterday morning.