DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2) | 1950-08-08 Des Moines Register Article: "Deflating of a Myth"

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Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2)

1950-08-08 Des Moines Register Article: "Deflating of a Myth"

[[Italics]]From the Christian Science Monitor.)[[end italics]]
[[Article text]]
An international panel of scholars, working under the auspices of UNESCO, has come to the conclusion that there is no scientific ground for the concept of racial superiority and inferiority.
This is hardly a new discovery, American and British sociologists and anthropologists have been saying this for a long time--so even had some German and Austrian scholars before Hitler.
***
Yet, even today, this conclusion of the experts is likely to leave the average man still incredulous. White American look at China's Mongol millions and say, "Look! How poor and primitive they are!" What they do not know is that China's ancient people look back at American s and say, "Look! How thing-minded and immature they are!" Each group judges from its own criteria. By its own standards, each is right.
But these Americans and Chinese are not talking about race--although they think they are. They are talking about "culture," a broader and less relative term than "civilization." Race has to do only with physical characteristics, such as the texture and color of hair and skin, the contour of the face and head.
***
But because people who look recognizably alike often (though not always) have the same "culture" the terms get mixed. Culturally, a people "stands upon the shoulders of its ancestors," one scholar put it graphically. American Negroes, as a group, lag somewhat behind their white neighbors, not because they are racially "Negroids" but because their immediate forefathers could hand down only the meager heritage of inferior opportunities and their ancestors only the tradition of a primitive civilization.
The UNESCO panel's findings serve more than an academic purpose. They help to cut away the ground from under the spurious rationale that supports racial myths.
[[Handwriting]]
DMR
Aug 8 50

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[[Italics]]From the Christian Science Monitor.)[[end italics]] [[Article text]] An international panel of scholars, working under the auspices of UNESCO, has come to the conclusion that there is no scientific ground for the concept of racial superiority and inferiority. This is hardly a new discovery, American and British sociologists and anthropologists have been saying this for a long time--so even had some German and Austrian scholars before Hitler. *** Yet, even today, this conclusion of the experts is likely to leave the average man still incredulous. White American look at China's Mongol millions and say, "Look! How poor and primitive they are!" What they do not know is that China's ancient people look back at American s and say, "Look! How thing-minded and immature they are!" Each group judges from its own criteria. By its own standards, each is right. But these Americans and Chinese are not talking about race--although they think they are. They are talking about "culture," a broader and less relative term than "civilization." Race has to do only with physical characteristics, such as the texture and color of hair and skin, the contour of the face and head. *** But because people who look recognizably alike often (though not always) have the same "culture" the terms get mixed. Culturally, a people "stands upon the shoulders of its ancestors," one scholar put it graphically. American Negroes, as a group, lag somewhat behind their white neighbors, not because they are racially "Negroids" but because their immediate forefathers could hand down only the meager heritage of inferior opportunities and their ancestors only the tradition of a primitive civilization. The UNESCO panel's findings serve more than an academic purpose. They help to cut away the ground from under the spurious rationale that supports racial myths. [[Handwriting]] DMR Aug 8 50