19th Century Racial Science And Racism

Smedley, Audrey, and Brian D. Smedley. "Race as Biology Is Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem Is Real: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on the Social Construction of Race." American Psychologist 60.1 (2005): 16-26. JSTOR. Web. 23 July

The purpose of the article” Shades of Difference: theoretical Underpinnings of the Medical Controversy on Black-White Differences in the United States, 1830-1870”, was to show a difference between beliefs and sound theory’s that are based on medical debates on slavery, racial differences and disease, and black inferiority. Throughout the article conflicting doctors raised the same scientific findings but let their predisposed assumptions, reach biased conclusions. From 1830 to 1850, doctors argued the legitimacy and clarification of their conclusions.

It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists.”(4)

The meaning, significance, and definition of race have been debated for centuries. Historical race concepts have varied across time and cultures, creating scientific, social, and political controversy. Of course, today’s definition varies from the scientific racism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that justified slavery and later, Jim Crow laws in the early twentieth. It is also different from the genetic inferiority argument that was present at the wake of the civil rights movement. However, despite the constantly shifting concepts, there seems to be one constant that has provided a foundation for ideas towards race: race is a matter of visually observable attributes such as skin color, facial features, and other self-evident

As slavery became a more divisive subject in American politics, justification was required for both sides to advance their interests. Much of the research by whites into the nature of black people in this time led to what is now known as scientific racism. With “discoveries” from both sides of the debate around slavery changing the way white people viewed blacks, both Thomas Jefferson and Johan von Herder present their case using nature, among other aspects to either reinforce or alter the view of slavery and black people in general.

The discussion of racism has posed an issue in the United States since the colonial and slave era. During the colonial era, a small group of European colonists settled in North America and over a course of time and through conflict, theft and eventually the genocide of Native Americans this country became majority Europeans. In years to come, the slavery of Africans brought to America will take place. Fast-forward to hundreds of years later to our modern-day era, the Caucasian/European population, to some Americans, are still considered the superior race of the United States.

The central problem in this film is racism. The film explores racism on a worldwide scale. It considers how racist thoughts and practices appeared in the main religious world institutions and how European philosophers wrote them. If we review the scientific racism, inaugurated during the 19th century, we will understand how dishonored practices, such as phrenology gave an ideological explanation for slavery and racism.

Looking at society and the formation of race in a historical context, whites have always held a higher title or delusional belief of “white-skin privileges.” This advantage gives whites an advantage in society whether one wants it or not. This notion is often commonly referred to as reality. As a young adult, I strongly believe that race is a socially constructed and disagree with the theory that race is a natural occurrence. Although ,different races have different physical features, these physical differences have no effect on one's actions, beliefs, and thoughts of a person.

At the beginning of the 20th century, power and prestige was held by the majority of (if not only) White people. African Americans were living under Jim Crow laws, Native Americans were forced into reservations and all of the new immigrants were in crowded ghettos. Those that were a race other than White were at “the bottom of the social and political hierarchy.” One of the aims of the Eugenics Movement was racial purification. Using the concept of Mendelian genes, scientists would try to breed the best, smartest, most talented, most beautiful and always white individuals and breed out the worst and weakest colored individuals. Mixed race people were seen as not put together because it was a combination of the best and worst traits someone could have.” Frederick Hoffman, presented data, statistics and a theory that claimed African Americans would become extinct because of high death and disease rates that were caused by African Americans being biologically lesser than Whites. However, his analysis was flawed because it failed to mention how systematic poverty and social neglect could be affecting the health of African Americans.

Samuel Morton measured the features and the capacity of human skulls; he concluded that there were five “races” or species and blacks had the smallest brain capacity. To support his argument he suggested that God must have’ intervened at the time of the flood to reshape mankind.” (Farrow p. 186) Josiah Nott published an article supporting an 1840 census and declared, “Slaves lived longer” and was less prone to lunacy than free northern blacks. (Farrow et al. p. 186-187) The most damaging research produced by Morton, Agassiz and Nott were their theories that declared “Caucasians and Negros” as different species and defined blacks as subhuman species. (p.186) Agassiz and Nott further warned against the mixing of races, claiming the purity of white race could be contaminated by the black race. “These influential scientists not only helped justify slavery, they helped solidify the myth of black inferiority” (Farrow, et al. p. xxviii)

In the nineteenth century biologist attempted to create a science of racial differences that would support the view of racialism. “These traits and tendencies characteristic of a race constitute, on the racialist view, a sort of racial essence; and it is part of the content of racialism that the essential heritable characteristics of what the nineteenth century called the “Races of Man” account for more than the visible morphological characteristics—skin color, hair type, facial features—on the basis of which we make our informal classification (Appiah 394). As of today, most scientists working in these fields continue to reject racialism. The claims of racialism are not supported by science. Plausibly, Appiah states that racialism doesn’t necessarily have to be an ethical issue. An individual may possibly acknowledge racialism but still believe that constructive moral characteristics are equally disseminated across the different races. But, what is logically possible and what usually occurs are two different things. “I believe—and I have argued elsewhere—that racialism is false; but by itself it seems to be a cognitive rather than a moral problem” (Appiah 394).

The early nineteenth century saw a heightened interest, particularly in the Southern states of the U.S., in the equality of men relative to the white land owners and their African slaves. In a nation that was founded on a document beginning with “all men are created equal”, it became time to genuinely step back and ask if that “self evident” truth was really applied in real life. After all, if the black slaves were equal in essence compared to their white owners, slavery then becomes a severely moral issue. If there were evidence of genetic difference, then the slave status of the African could be seen as “natural”. (Lurie, 230) Or, if the opposite were believed to be true, and all humans were equal and slavery was abolished, had the Africans been ruined by slavery, what was to be done about racial mixing, how would society recover from this long practice and “conceptualization of race”. (Dain, viii) Scientists on both sides of the argument jumped into the scene toting evidence to support either a unity theory to suggest equality between all humans, or a separate unity theory that seemed to place the races in a hierarchical scale of

George Cuvier was not alone in his skewed belief of racial superiority. Other scientists in the 19th century such as Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau development theories of classification of race that noted Europeans as racially superior

Racism is the belief that a certain race is inferior or superior to other races or one particular race. The most common conception of racism can date back to the early Middle Ages in Europe. This was the time period in which white Europeans were beginning to come into contact with darker skinned Africans, Asians, and Native Americans. In 1492, a Spanish explorer sailed to islands off the coast of the United States and later many other Spanish and European explorers would travel on the East Coast of the country. At this point in time, historians estimate there were 10 million Native Americans living in the United States. The Native Americans were quickly wiped out by European American settlers that killed them in war, murder or with their unfamiliar diseases, such as smallpox. By 1990, there was less than 300,000 Native Americans still living in the United States. The Europeans viewed these people as savages and felt entitled to the land that the indigenous people once knew as their home. The Europeans were also on a hunt for

The concept of race and the meanings associated with the term have continuously changed and evolved throughout history. Many negative connotations have been associated with the word race and these are evident as one reflects on the historical origins of the term. Commonly the term race is closely connected to the notion of ‘racism.’ Racism is a specific form of prejudice which focuses on physical variations between people. It describes the ideological belief that a person, or groups of people can be classified into ‘races’ which can be ranked in terms of superiority and inferiority (Spoonley, 1988:4). Giddens defines racism as “the attribution of characteristics of superiority or inferiority to a population sharing certain physically inherited characteristics” (1997:584). This supports the idea that racism is a manner of prejudice or animosity against people who have different physical characteristics. It is in virtue of circumstances such as these that Anthropologists find it necessary to make a distinction between the concepts of race and ethnicity.