Franz Boas Quotes
If we were to select the most intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and emotionally stable third of mankind, all races would be present.
Boas, Franz. Anthropology and Modern Life. W. W. Norton & Company, 1928, p. 75.
At the time he made this speech it was very radical. School segregation was not only legal but was required by law in the Southern states. This was a huge slap in the face of the South which had undermined the gains of Reconstruction. It did not however hurt his future political career in the North. At the time it was the Republicans who were the champions of desegregation and equality and most racists in the country were Democrats. One hundred years later, it was the other way around. Most racists affiliated with the Republican Party and it was the Democrats who advocated strong anti-discriminatory measures.
The statement was made just before Kenyan Independence was official. His statement was surprising to many people who perceived him as a racist and anti-white. There was a fear that whites would no longer be welcome in Kenya after independence, but Kenyatta’s leadership maintained a pluralistic society.
When the Democrats won the presidency, there was great fear that all the appointments that Blacks had garnered would be undone as the results of the Southern racist element of the Democratic party. The President held the line, much to the distress of his Southern supporters.
He was reacting to the racial claims of Adolph Hitler in German
Franz Uri Boas was a German-born American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as Historical Particularism and Cultural Relativism.
