Racial Differences Quotes
This quotation and the so called “facts” therein have been quoted by many to demonstrate general racial inferiority of Blacks as compared to whites in the first half of the 20th century. There are two difficulties with their arguments. First it has been scientifically demonstrated that amongst many animals including humans brain size has nothing to do with intelligence. For example, the primitive Neanderthal man had a bigger skull and brain than modern man. Second, it is not the case that Negro brains are smaller than whites. Stephen J. Gould has demonstrated the fallacy of these early studies showing the difference. It is a classic scientific example that researchers looking for a particular solution will often find it whether or not it is real.
This was a bomb-shell statement at the time. Advocates for equality and desegregation usually tried to avoid this issue and Black leaders in particular were afraid of a backlash if they included this issue in the argument for equality. Du Bois did not run from the issue. His position was used by segregation leaders to show what “evils” would befall the nation if segregation was ended. See {586739}.
This quotation illustrates how extensive and virulent anti-Asian racism had become. Gompers was a left wing liberal, but also a labor leader, and the prospect of millions of oriental immigrants competing for the existing American jobs was frightening. The irony of this quotation was that most of the labor constituency that Gompers represented had been immigrants or were the children of immigrants who earlier had frightened American workers and whose ethnicity had been opposed—Irish, Italians, Jews.
Morton the had the largest collection of skulls I the world, and “measured” the cranial capacity. The implication of superior Caucasian intellect so widely believed sprung from his research. Today, we not only know that cranial capacity is not correlated with intellectual capacity, but Stephen J. Gould has actually demonstrated that Morton’s measurements were incorrect anyway.
This is but one of the quotations of someone who was a major force in perpetuating the old slavery era myth that “Negros” were not only inferior to whites, but they were unable to develop morality or repress their sexual urges. Dr. Howard was generally castigated by his professional colleagues, but he was quite popular with the general public for whom he wrote a number of books and magazine articles.
