General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: FDR Democrats, check in here! [View all]Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)I said, "He didn't tackle racial issues" and that "he could and should have done a lot more than he did ... (to) address America's race problem." As I indicated with my reference to the Democratic Party and the South, this was probably a product more of political calculation than of personal racism.
As for the Japanese-American internment, the East Coast also had hysteria and people on hills with binoculars. German submarines had been preying on American shipping in the North Atlantic; they sank a Navy destroyer, the USS Reuben James, several weeks before Pearl Harbor. (Apologies to anyone who just got a Woody Guthrie earworm.) My understanding of the historians' consensus is that the treatment of Japanese-Americans had a significant racial component. It's clear that many Americans back then were racists, FDR didn't stand up to the widespread bigotry the way he should have.
The internment wasn't my main point, though. My bottom line is that, even if the internment had never happened, the New Deal would have to be assessed as a disappointment (at best) on racial issues. Where we disagree is that you give more weight than I do to his enunciation of a goal.