Interbreeding Quotes
This classic quotation illustrates several things. First, the degree of racism that existed in 1944 in West Virginia. Second, not how young Robert Byrd immediately leaped from the possibility of integrating our fighting forces to interracial sex. That has been typical of white racism in America—a preoccupation with race and sex. Last, Byrd who became a member of the KKK, completely changed his mind over the year and ended up supporting the things that, as a youth were worse than the demise of the nation. He matured and grew on the race issue as much of the country did and ended as a strong supporter of equality and civil rights—including affirmative action.
Lawrence was one of the very advanced scientists of his time presaging Darwin on a few issues. But he erroneously believed that character and intellect were heretical capabilities. Intellect has been shown to be an inheritable trait to some extent (50-60 percent), but it is not racial per se. And character as we now know is not inherited.
Some opponents of genetic engineering and Xenotransplantation (creating new animals by combining parts of different animals or adding parts of one animal species to another) cite this Biblical passage in their efforts to stop these new technologies. Yet both are well established and most people, including the opponents often do not even realize instances of it. For example, a large proportion of heart valve repairs in humans is accomplished by Xenotransplantation—replacing the defective heart valve with a pig heart valve. An entire line of biological research is being conducted by splicing the genes of a jellyfish that glows green under UV light into monkeys and worms to study the methods of genetic transmission.
The logic train from mixed blood to why lynching should not be prohibited is obscure but in filibusters Senators tended to just repeat all of their stump speeches or anything else because they had to keep talking.
Russell like the rest of the Southern Congressional delegation, though members of the President’s own party were vehemently opposed to any civil rights legislation that would erode the legal racism and segregation that was prevalent in the South. The irony of Russell’s statement is that by Russell’s definition of a “mongrel race” the South was just that. And in a very real genetic sense all the great civilizations were characterized by interbreeding which is what Russell and other Southerners were paranoid about. The Southern institution of slavery was rife with the sexual abuse of the female slaves by the white masters and/or members of their family, overseers and other whites with power over the slaves. While many of the offspring were identifiable as mixed race (defined as Black by the laws at the time) many appeared to be white and light skinned enough to “pass” and did. A very large percentage of Southern white and black families had mixed blood in the family when Russell was complaining. More to the point, although it was not known at the time, we now know that every human being on earth can be genetically traced back through myocardial DNA to Blacks emanating from Africa. However, even using his narrow vision of race, his history was wanting. A number of great civilizations were of mixed race. One dramatic example was the great dynasties of Egypt. Cleopatra, herself, was from the union of Alexander the Great’s Greek General Ptolemy and the traditional line of Egyptian Pharos. Alexander’s Greek Soldiers interbred, as part of Alexander’s policy of occupation as suggested by Aristotle. All those societies thereafter were “mongrel” races at least in the ruling and upper classes. Actually the United States and the Soviet Union, the two super powers of the day both were ethnically and racially, highly diversified and both had a great deal of miscegenation. Scientists had made a very good argument that miscegenation strengthens a people—not weakens it.
This book was the first popular attempt to spread the eugenics concept. Is was translated into German in 1925 and unfortunately read by Adolf Hitler who sent Grant a complimentary letter. See {603544} and {602054}
He served a jail sentence in Britain for inciting race hatred. This statement was made in response to the accusation that he was an extremist.
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston. This is a wonderful example of scientific thinking about a politically and emotionally charged subject.
He was referring to the French Revolutionist, Joachim Murat, who was a mulatto. Note the incorrect bias at the time that a mixed race — human hybrid — was inferior and unnatural. See related quotes.
The danger of racial and ethnic interbreeding was a fabricated myth. We now know that the danger can come from pure breeding and not obtaining enough genetic diversity. One reason that man has been so successful is that the species is the product of very extensive genetic diversity. For example EVERY human being on the planet had some genetic relationship to a Black African woman.
Millard and other racists ignorant of the human genome and science do not even realize that the thing they fear has already occurred tens of thousands of years ago. All humans, Blacks, Whites, Indians, Asians whatever all people alive today share the genes of Lucy, the oldest human discovered—she was Black and all other races as well as Blacks are descended from her and her contemporaries.
Hoxha was a mixture of extreme Communist and extreme nationalist. Note the paranoia about intermarriage and interbreeding with other nationalities which was typical of Balkan nations,. He actually deluded himself into thinking that Albanian occupation and invasion had never resulted in female fraternization or rape and subsequent ethnic mixing. International communism however, on this point was just the opposite of Hoxha’s—the advocated an international view of intermarriage and breeding. Theirs was a class paranoia, not a nationalistic or racial paranoia.
