Racial Differences and Witch Hunting |
Racial Differences and Witch Hunting
Science Magazine
Volume 135, Number 3507 (1962-03-16)
pages 982-984
DOI: 10.1126/science.135.3507.982-a
Henry E. Garrett
In a recent issue of Science (1), Santiago Genovés of the University of Mexico discourses at some length concerning a paper of mine published in the Mankind Quarterly last year (2). Genovés objects to my criticism of Klineberg’s chapter “Race and psychology,” included in the UNESCO publication The Race Quesion in Modern Science (ed. 2, 1956). He confuses the issues through bad logic and too much vehemence What I actually did in my paper was to show, I think conclusively, that the evidence for no race differences presented by Klineberg is far too meager, too ambiguous, and too inconclusive to justify his sweeping assertion that “the scientist knows of no relation between race and psychology ” My paper would have been “unscientific racism” (Genovés’s term) only if its main purpose had been to support the doctrines of a “master race” or “chosen people.” As its aim was simply to point out the flimsy nature of Klineberg’s data, it is a legitimate enterprise, unless one considers any criticism of equalitarianism to be morally untenable.
Genovés is critical of my view that widespread Negro-white hybridization has in the past led to illiteracy, social and economic backwardness, and degeneracy. He assumes that I condemn all race mixing, which is untrue. Most racial hybrids are viable, and many are successful people, as witness the Hawaiian-Chinese and Japanese-American crosses in Hawaii. But one need go no farther afield than the West Indies. Central America, and parts of South America to be convinced of the bad effects of Negro-white crosses when these are numerous. My concern was…
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Tags: Henry E. Garrett, Henry Garrett, Science Magazine