There had
always been a minority who wanted to build a separate community,
but he said that what was favored by the maJority was to gain
entrance into American society. Yet the daily insults which were
felt even by the most avid integrationists led them to curse
white society and, at times, to consider retreat into
isolationism. According to his point of view, Johnson pointed
out, isolationism had to be based on economics and although one
could talk about black capitalism and could even develop some
prospering businesses, the economic realities favored mass
production and economic interdependence. Separate black
institutions were always contingent institutions which were
subservient to the country as a whole. Therefore they could
never really be free or independent. The separate society would
always be subJect to external control by the larger economic and
political institutions on which it relied. Johnson also noted
that integrationists like himself had been charged with failing
to see the intensity of the institutional racism which existed
all about them. He denied this and claimed that racism and
discrimination were patently obvious.
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