'Humans Are Not Equal': The Dishonest History of Race

Summary

This script explores the historical underpinnings of race realism, a concept claiming inherent differences between races that impact abilities and behaviors. It debunks such theories by highlighting their Eurocentric origins and the flawed methodologies used by proponents like Carl Linnaeus, Samuel George Morton, and others. The script also exposes how these ideas were used to justify slavery and imperialism, illustrating the absurdity through historical inconsistencies and modern scientific refutations.

Takeaways

• 📚 The concept of race realism or racialism, which suggests that humanity can be divided into distinct categories with inherent differences, has been pervasive in modern discourse but is not supported by scientific evidence.
• 🌐 Historically, race-based hierarchies have been manipulated to place Europeans at the top, reflecting cultural biases rather than objective truth.
• 🧬 Even prominent figures like Charles Darwin were influenced by racialist sentiments, suggesting a historical trend of conflating race with evolutionary progress.
• 🔍 Early taxonomies by scientists like Carl Linnaeus attempted to categorize human races based on superficial physical traits, which were later debunked.
• 🏛️ The idea of race was used to justify social and political inequalities, such as slavery and colonialism, showing its roots in power dynamics rather than biology.
• 🧠 The belief in brain size correlating with intelligence was used to argue for racial superiority, despite being scientifically unfounded and based on biased measurements.
• 🔎 Scientists like Samuel George Morton and Robert Bennett Bean conducted flawed studies to 'prove' racial differences in brain size and intelligence, which were later discredited.
• 📉 The theory of recapitulation, which compared racial development to stages of child development, was used to justify imperialism and was later debunked by the theory of neoteny.
• 🚫 Racialist theories have been consistently debunked and revised over time, yet their influence on societal attitudes and policies has been significant and long-lasting.
• 🔄 The script highlights the need for critical examination of historical scientific theories, as many were based on cultural biases and had profound societal impacts.

Q & A

What is the main argument against race realism presented in the script?

The script argues against race realism by showing that the idea of dividing humanity into distinct races with inherent differences is a social construct rather than a scientific fact. It highlights the historical misuse of science to justify racial hierarchies and the flaws in methodologies used to 'prove' racial differences.

How does the script address the historical context of racial ideas?

The script discusses the historical context by referencing quotes from Aristotle and the changing views on race over time, showing how these ideas have been used to justify social and political inequalities.

What role did Carl Linnaeus play in the classification of races according to the script?

Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish physician, is mentioned for dividing humanity into five races in his 1735 work 'Systema Naturae', using physical characteristics and stereotypes to describe each race.

How does the script critique the work of Samuel George Morton?

The script critiques Samuel George Morton's work by pointing out the biases and methodological flaws in his measurements of skulls to establish a ranking of races based on brain size, which was used to justify white superiority.

What was the significance of the term 'negritude' in the context of the script?

The term 'negritude' is not directly mentioned in the script, but it could refer to the concept of black identity and pride, which contrasts with the negative racial classifications and stereotypes discussed.

How does the script discuss the connection between race realism and eugenics?

The script implies a connection between race realism and eugenics by showing how the belief in racial hierarchies was used to justify social policies like segregation and the prevention of certain groups from reproducing.

What is the script's stance on the biological validity of race?

The script argues that race, as a biological category, is not valid and is a social construct used to categorize and discriminate against people based on superficial physical differences.

How does the script highlight the misuse of scientific language in racial theories?

The script shows how terms like 'phrenology' and concepts like brain size were misused to create a pseudoscientific basis for racial hierarchies, despite lacking empirical support.

What are some of the historical figures mentioned in the script who contributed to racialist ideas?

Historical figures mentioned include Aristotle, Carl Linnaeus, Benjamin Rush, Christoph Meiners, Carl Vogt, Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and Samuel George Morton.

How does the script discuss the impact of racialist ideas on society and policy?

The script discusses the impact of racialist ideas by showing how they influenced social policies, scientific research, and public opinion, leading to discrimination, segregation, and the justification of colonialism and imperialism.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 The Misguided History of Race Realism

This paragraph delves into the pervasive concept of race and its categorization, challenging the idea of race realism which suggests that humanity can be divided into distinct races with inherent differences in abilities and behaviors. It highlights the historical misuse of quotes, such as one from Aristotle, to support racial hierarchies, pointing out that such sentiments have been manipulated over time. The paragraph also discusses the European invention of race as a social construct, with a focus on how historical figures and academics, including Carl Linnaeus and Charles Darwin, have contributed to and perpetuated racial stereotypes and misconceptions.

05:01

🔬 Debunking Early Racial Theories and Misconceptions

Paragraph 2 explores the flawed theories and classifications of race by early scientists and philosophers. It critiques the work of Carl Linnaeus, who divided humanity into five races based on superficial physical characteristics, and other thinkers like Benjamin Rush and Christoph Meiners, who proposed that race determined emotional and intellectual capabilities. The paragraph also addresses the arbitrary changes in racial classifications over time and the pseudoscientific justifications for racial hierarchies, emphasizing the lack of scientific rigor in these historical views.

10:02

📊 The Manipulation of Data in Racial Studies

This section exposes the manipulation of data and skull measurements by scientists like Samuel George Morton to 'prove' the superiority of certain races. It discusses how Morton's methods, which involved filling skulls with seeds or lead shot to measure their capacity, were flawed and how his findings were deliberately skewed to align with his preconceived notions of racial hierarchy. The paragraph also corrects common misconceptions about brain size and intelligence, highlighting the lack of correlation between the two and the scientific community's eventual rejection of such theories.

15:03

🧠 The Fallacies of Brain Size and Racial Superiority

Paragraph 4 continues the critique of racial science by examining the beliefs about brain size and its supposed correlation with intelligence and civilization. It discusses the work of Robert Bean, who compared the brains of American blacks and whites and claimed that white brains were superior. The paragraph debunks this claim by explaining the complexity of brain function and the fallacy of attributing cognitive abilities solely to brain size or specific lobe sizes. It also touches on the historical context and the cultural biases that influenced such pseudoscientific studies.

20:03

📏 The Absurdities of Cranial Index and Racial Classification

This paragraph scrutinizes the cranial index, a measurement used to classify and rank races based on the shape of the skull. It highlights the arbitrary distinctions made between 'dolichocephalic' and 'brachycephalic' skulls and how these classifications were used to justify racial hierarchies. The paragraph also points out the inconsistencies and contradictions in these theories, such as the difficulty in categorizing certain groups like African blacks and Australian aborigines, and the eventual abandonment of these classifications due to their lack of scientific validity.

25:04

🧬 The Evolutionary Fallacies and Racist Misinterpretations

Paragraph 6 addresses the misuse of evolutionary theory to justify racial hierarchies and imperialism. It discusses the theory of recapitulation, which posited that adult members of 'inferior' races were akin to children of 'superior' races, and how this was used to justify colonialism and racial discrimination. The paragraph also explores the shift to neoteny, which challenged recapitulation by suggesting that the retention of infantile features was a sign of advancement rather than inferiority. It critiques the selective application of these theories to fit preconceived racial biases and concludes by emphasizing the scientific and moral flaws in these arguments.

Keywords

💡Race realism

Race realism is the belief that human populations can be divided into distinct races with inherent differences in traits such as intelligence and behavior. The video script critiques this concept, highlighting its historical misuse to justify social hierarchies and discrimination. For instance, the script mentions how historical figures like Aristotle and Charles Darwin were misinterpreted to support race realism, despite their actual views being more nuanced.

💡Racialism

Racialism refers to the ideology that races are distinct and that some are superior to others. The video discusses how racialism has been perpetuated through pseudoscientific claims, such as those made by Carl Linnaeus and others who attempted to categorize humans into races with predefined characteristics. The script shows how these ideas have been debunked and used to support discriminatory practices.

💡Scientific racism

Scientific racism is the use of scientific theories and methods to support racist beliefs. The video script provides historical examples of how scientists like Samuel George Morton used flawed methodologies to argue for racial hierarchies based on skull measurements. The script illustrates how these 'findings' were not only scientifically unsound but also served to reinforce societal prejudices.

💡Recapitulation theory

Recapitulation theory, as discussed in the video, is the notion that the development of individuals (ontogeny) repeats the stages of the development of their species (phylogeny). The video explains how this theory was misused to argue that certain races were less evolved, comparing adult blacks and women to white male children, thereby justifying their supposed inferiority. The script highlights the fallacy and the ideological misuse of this concept.

💡Neoteny

Neoteny is the retention of juvenile characteristics in adults, which the video script contrasts with recapitulation theory. It points out the irony that while recapitulation was used to argue for white superiority, neoteny, which would suggest the opposite, was ignored by the same scientists. The video uses this to show the inconsistency and bias in scientific racism.

💡Phrenology

Phrenology is the discredited practice of measuring the human skull to draw conclusions about mental faculties and character. The video script mentions how phrenology was used to 'scientifically' justify racial and gender hierarchies, such as by claiming that certain races had larger or smaller brain areas associated with intelligence.

💡Cranial index

The cranial index is the ratio of the skull's width to its length, which was used in the past to classify and rank races based on their skull shape. The video script critiques this measure as being arbitrary and used to support racial stereotypes, such as claiming that dolichocephalic (long-headed) people were more intelligent than brachycephalic (short-headed) people.

💡Eugenics

Eugenics is the belief in improving the human race through controlled breeding to encourage the inheritance of desirable traits. The video touches on how eugenics was influenced by scientific racism, with policies aimed at reducing the reproduction of those deemed 'inferior' or promoting 'superior' races, reflecting a dark chapter in the history of eugenics.

💡Racial hierarchy

A racial hierarchy is a system that ranks different racial groups as superior or inferior to one another. The video script discusses how various theories, such as those proposed by Carl Linnaeus and Arthur de Gobineau, were used to create such hierarchies, often positioning Europeans at the top, which the video argues was a reflection of the biases of the time rather than scientific fact.

💡Mismeasurement

The term 'mismeasurement' refers to the intentional or unintentional errors in scientific studies that lead to incorrect conclusions, often due to bias. The video script uses the example of Samuel George Morton's skull measurements to illustrate how mismeasurement was used to support racialist theories, despite later corrections showing no significant differences in brain size among races.

Highlights

The concept of race realism or racialism is a pervasive idea suggesting humanity can be divided into distinct, well-defined categories with inherent differences.

Historically, even Aristotle's time saw race realist tendencies, although often misinterpreted in modern contexts.

Race as a concept was a European invention, with Europeans positioning themselves at the top of the racial hierarchy.

Carl Linnaeus' classification in 'Systema Naturae' divided humanity into five races with stereotypical and derogatory descriptions.

Benjamin Rush, a founding father, believed being black was a hereditary disease called 'negritude'.

Christopher Meiners argued that races could only be divided according to beauty, with the white race deemed superior.

Arthur de Gobineau's work introduced the concept of an Aryan race and contributed to the idea of racial hierarchy.

Louis Agassiz's 'Diversity of Origin of the Human Races' expanded the racial categories and influenced later racialist theories.

Samuel George Morton's skull measurements aimed to establish a ranking of races by brain size, but were methodologically flawed.

Robert Bennett Bean's study on brain size differences between races was later debunked by his own mentor.

The cranial index, measuring the ratio of skull width to length, was used to justify racial intelligence hierarchies.

Recapitulation theory suggested that adults of 'inferior' races were like children of 'superior' races, used to justify imperialism.

Neoteny, the opposite of recapitulation, was later used to argue that 'superior' races retained infantile features into adulthood.

The video discusses how historical scientific racism was not only hypocritical but also based on data manipulation and biases.

Racist ideologies have been perpetuated by various influential figures throughout history, often to justify social and political agendas.

Transcripts

race is such a pervasive idea in modern

discourse racists nowadays and their

academic counterparts try to push the

idea of race realism or racialism the

idea that humanity can be easily divided

into well-defined categories races that

are both broad and clearly defined said

races are different from one another and

that these differences can determine the

abilities and behaviors of individuals

or groups that belong to that race

where did these ideas originate though i

mean these sentiments have existed for a

long time

let's take a look at this quote from

aristotle those nations are full of

spirit but somewhat deficient in

intelligence and skill so that they

continue comparatively free but lacking

in political organization and capacity

to rule their neighbors fairly

interesting isn't it how far back race

realist tendencies go when talking about

blacks

wait

i've been a little cheeky here notice

that i haven't provided the full quote

here is the full quote the nation's

inhabiting the cold places and those of

europe are full of spirit but somewhat

deficient in intelligence and skill so

that they continue comparatively free

but lacking in political organization

and capacity to rule their neighbors

he's talking about the whites of europe

not of blacks

that was just a little exercise to show

how even you and i may have been

affected by these notions despite us not

believing in them the very fact that a

couple of thousand years ago the

supposedly unalienable racial hierarchy

was different to those of modern people

who subscribe to such ideas should be

proof enough as to how ridiculous it all

is race especially the modern concept is

a purely european invention with

conveniently europeans being at the top

of said hierarchy

nonetheless let's take a look at the

semi-modern history of race realism

now attitudes of race realism racialism

were pervasive especially in supposedly

educated circles since before the french

revolution even amongst the more liberal

american leaders such as lincoln there

are statements such as this

there is a physical difference between

the white and black races which i

believe will forever forbid the two

races living together on terms of social

and political equality and insomuch as

they can not so live while they do

remain together there must be the

position of superior and inferior and i

as much as any other man am in favor of

having the superior position assigned to

the white race

even in academic circles where giants

like charles darwin stood such

sentiments were prevalent and even

presented a scientific fact darwin

himself wrote about a future time when

the gap between human and ape will

increase by the anticipated extinction

of intermediates such as chimpanzees and

hotentots that being a racial term for

the kahoe a nomadic tribe of people in

south africa

the break will then be rendered wider

for will intervene between man in a more

civilized state as we may hope

than the caucasian and some ape as low

as a baboon instead of as at present

between the negro or australian and the

gorilla

before we get into the deeper stuff

let's see what concepts of race existed

among supposedly educated european minds

carl linnaeus a swedish physician in his

1735 work systems of nature divided

humanity into five races

the americanus red coloraic righteous

black straight thick hair stubborn

zealous free painting himself with red

lines and regulated by customs their

pianist white sanguine brownie with

abundant long hair blue eyes gentle

acute inventive covered with close

vestments and governed by laws the

asiaticus yellow meningolic stiff black

hair dark eyes severe haughty greedy

covered with loose clothing and ruled by

opinions

interestingly the asiaticus changed from

brown in the first edition of systems of

nature to yellow in the 10th edition

finally the africanus black phlegmatic

relaxed black frizzled hair silky skin

flat nose timid lips females without

shame mammary glands give milk

abundantly

crafty sly lazy cunning lustful careless

anoints himself with grease and governed

by caprice as you can see only the most

scientific descriptors

benjamin rush one of the founding

fathers and a physician believed being

black was a hereditary disease called

negroidism a type of leprosy and that it

could be cured christopher miners a

german philosopher and historian

believed that races could only be

divided according to beauty with

as you may expect the white race being

beautiful and the black race being ugly

he took this nonsense even further

though he claimed that blacks don't feel

emotions or pain and that they are all

carnivores all this was

discovered after he dissected like

cadavers karl walked a prominent swiss

scientist claimed that whites are

entirely a different species and that

blacks were related to apes

now this original simple division of

five races done by lenaeus grew to 13

with the publication of the diversity of

origin of the human races by louis

agassi in 1850 also in the mid-19th

century arthur de gabino would publish

his an essay on the inequality of the

human races

digamino is interesting to note for a

few reasons one is that he was a

diplomat and he had no training in any

scientific field let alone anthropology

and two he was the one to coin the idea

of an aryan race

he divided race into three categories

black yellow and white of course in his

mind the white race was the most

superior

the white race originally possesses the

monopoly of beauty intelligence and

strength

he thought that race mixing was the

greatest evil he further believed that

any positive achievements or traits that

the yellow or black races had or would

have are solely due to mixing at one

point or another with white people he

also decided that there were subsections

of white people with a pure germanic

race being the ideal example funnily

enough though he was french and also

claimed to be a descendant of odin

why is this interesting because diego

venue made friends with richard wagner

the radically anti-semitic german

composer and a favorite of hitler wagner

supported the governor's work

and after dicobano's death it was picked

up and built upon by wagner's son-in-law

houston stuart chamberlain chamberlain

was hitler's mentor and prime supporter

i think you see the connection let's

distract from this depressing fact

through some humor dukabanu spent his

time as a diplomat in tehran iran iran

was his prime obsession claiming that

their ancient civilizations were built

by a western european race that has

since mixed too much with the semantic

arabs to be salvaged despite the fact

that there is complete continuity

between ancient and modern iranians

due to this he saw iran being conquered

by the west eventually but warned that

western men would all too easily be

seduced by beautiful persian women thus

causing more miscegenation to further

corrupt the west

this strange orientalist idea was very

common with him actually as he believed

that asian and black women had immense

powers of sexual attraction over white

men and that whenever whites were in

close proximity to blacks and asians the

result was always mixing as white men

were seduced by asian and black women to

the detriment of the whites

for a supposedly superior race they sure

are bad at self-control

now let's move on to the meat of history

racism rather than give a long series of

names explaining the who and where are

random people with unfamiliar names that

neither you or i will bother to remember

i'd rather give their opinions in the

context of the time and how they justify

their personal biases whites being

superior to all through their research

this research eventually became

pervasive in academic circles and would

trickle down to more educated laymen at

the time and eventually these opinions

reached today's race realists in one

form or another in one package or

another samuel george morton is one of

these unfamiliar names he was a

physician renowned for his collection of

human skulls and his strange belief

entirely based off of travel reports

that different races of man produce

infertile offspring to give you an idea

how influential he was the new york

tribune wrote after his passing that

probably no scientific man in america

enjoyed a higher reputation among

scholars throughout the world than dr

morton his prime goal was to see if a

ranking of races could be established

objectively by physical characteristics

of the brain particularly by its size

the idea being the larger the brain the

more intelligent the person is the more

intelligent the more civilized endowed

with the tools to rule over the lessened

out so on and so forth now the very idea

that larger brain equals more

intelligent is dubious at best brain

size is related to the size of the body

that houses it large people tend to have

larger brains than small people

elephants have way larger brains than

human beings what's important is the

ratio of brain size to body size when

applying this metric the ratio between

for example men and women are the same

despite men usually being larger and

usually having larger brains this also

applies to different groups of people be

they black native american east asian

etc the very premise that larger brains

equals more intelligence is flawed from

the very beginning putting that aside

morton's measurements of skulls

themselves were nonsense he measured

them by packing skulls with mustard

seeds at first which provided very

shoddy measurements undeterred he moved

on to using led shot which had a much

narrower range for error

from these measurements he produced

three tables two of random sets of

modern skulls in his position and one

for skulls he got from an ancient

egyptian tomb long after many of his

beliefs were discredited these tables

were still used as hard evidence for the

ranking of races

conveniently the results happened to

exactly match the racial biases of the

author whites at the top native

americans in the middle and blacks at

the bottom under the breakdown of whites

two tones and anglo-saxons were at the

top jews below and indians as in from

the indian subcontinent at the bottom

this pattern was also supposedly proven

by the skulls found in the egyptian tomb

how interesting biology seems to have

proven that which egalitarians deny

the truth is though that he fudged his

numbers stephen j gold in his book the

mis-measure of man argues that this

fudging was unintentional but in the end

it doesn't really change anything

now let's see how he fudged his numbers

exactly in his averaging of cranial

capacities amongst differing native

american groups something very cheeky

was done

in a sample of 144 skulls 36 skulls

belonged to the inca peruvians which

were of short stature and body size

while the larger brained iroquois

contributed only three skulls if it were

the other way around his results which

were an average of course would have

risen by quite a bit when correcting

this little mistake gold did this by

averaging the mean values for all tribes

represented by four skulls or more

the mean average measured in cubic

inches jumps from 80.2 to

83.79

hold on a minute you say morton's data

shows that caucasian skulls are more

than three cubic inches larger than the

corrected figure doesn't that still

prove morton's point well

no he didn't only fudge numbers for the

native americans in his caucasian mean

he

indian skulls as in from the indian

subcontinent for fear that it will

unnecessarily reduce the average of

caucasian skulls

mind you he didn't extend this courtesy

to the native american skulls gladly

including the much smaller inca peruvian

skulls as 25 of the amount of skulls

used in that measurement

by restoring indian skulls to the

average and applying the same method of

calculation as for native american

skulls the correct result is

84.45 cubic inches by accounting for the

error range of plus minus one cubic inch

the result shows that there is

practically no difference between native

americans and caucasians interestingly

eskimos which morton had a very low

opinion of yield an average of 86.8

yet morton hides this by lumping them in

with the mongol classification

morton believed that he had shown that

whites were superior to native americans

in intelligence now he wanted to show

that the supposed discrepancy between

whites and blacks was even greater and

that this has remained unchanged since

ancient times here's where the skulls

from the egyptian tomb come in now

morton believed that he could identify

both races and subgroups among races

from features of the skull a belief that

most anthropologists today would deny is

possible unambiguously

he divided his caucasian skulls into

pelagics meaning helene's basically

greeks jews and egyptians in that order

again confirming anglo-saxon preferences

non-caucasian scalzi identified either

as negroid hybrids of negro and

caucasian with more black than white or

as pure negro now most of you have

already realized what he did with this

unnecessary step of subdivision he

simply assigned the largest calls to his

preferred plastic group and the smallest

to egyptians if we ignore his separation

and combine all 65 caucasian skulls into

a single sample we get an average

capacity of 82.15 cubic inches

if we give morton the benefit of all

doubt and rack his dubious sub-samples

equally as we did in computing native

american caucasian means we obtain an

average of 83.3 cubic inches

these averages are quite a bit larger

than the negroid and negro averages

morton provides couples with the fact

that morton didn't take into account the

sexes of the skulls the white skulls

were majority male while the black

skulls were female by a substantial

percentage if we correct the number by

sex the black male average is 87.5

larger than the white male average of

86.5 these differences that favored

whites and morton's original results are

made even worse by the very selective

rounding of numbers morton did rounding

up for whites and down for blacks

in the end this was nothing but an

ideological justification of class-based

relations sure they spoke of asiatics

and hindus with passing statements about

their inferiority or other negative

traits the real meat of this research

was toward the justification of slavery

particularly in the united states an

example of this would be trapetomania a

mental disease coined by some physicians

of the time trapetomania was the disease

responsible that caused slaves to want

to run away supposedly they couldn't

wrap their heads around why they would

want to run away so they came up with a

disease for that desire the reasoning

being that blacks are less intelligent

and hence equal to the intellect of

white children cartwright an american

physician wrote like children they mean

slaves are constrained by unalterable

physiological laws to love those in

authority over them hence from a law of

his nature the negro can no more help

loving kind master then the child can

help loving her that gives it suck

now that's enough about morton even

though there's a lot more to say

continuing the strange fascination that

racialists have with skull and brain

measuring let's introduce robert bennett

bean a u.s physician that published a

long and detailed article comparing the

brains of american blacks and whites in

1906. supposedly he found undisputable

proof that white brains were superior

everywhere he looked hmm let's dispute

to that proof then

first of all let me familiarize you with

the premises you worked under the brain

consists of two hemispheres with a

structure called the corpus callosum

connecting the two the brain also

consists of four lobes the frontal at

the front obviously parietal temporal

and occipital at the back the frontal

lobe is responsible for among other

things cognitive function the parietal

lobe manages information about sensitive

movement the occipital lobe is

responsible for vision the temporal lobe

manages memories and their interaction

with other senses for example smell a

particular food and you'll remember that

trip you took to morocco 10 years ago or

something

the understanding of the time however

was slightly different the frontal lobe

was considered to be solely responsible

for higher mental function while the

occipital was considered to be solely

responsible for sensory motor capacities

bean's belief was that logically the

race with the larger average frontal

lobe would be more civilized and

developed and the race more barbaric and

uncivilized would have a larger

occipital lobe

coming back to the corpus callosum beam

measured the relative sizes of the front

portion and back portion of that corpus

callosum what he found conveniently was

that whites have a larger front portion

where the seat of intelligence is this

is a nonsense term by modern standards

blacks inversely add smaller and hence

we can extrapolate that they are less

intelligent funnily enough bean also

extended this to the sexes apparently

proving that women were less intelligent

as well since they had smaller front

portions than men

as some of you may have noticed however

another criteria is missing the old

favorite of racialists brain size

well by this time it turns out that some

have accepted the fact that black and

white brains are the same size

there was an out though maybe it wasn't

the brain size but differing sizes of

brain components between races that

proved white superiority

for example blacks were deficient in

intelligence because their occipital

lobes were larger and frontal lobes

smaller than whites

negroes are between man and the

orangutan the negro is primarily

affectionate immensely emotional then

sensual and under stimulation passionate

there is love of a sensation and

capacity for melodious articulation

there is undeveloped artistic power and

taste negroes make good artisans

handicraftsmen and there is instability

of character incident to lack of

self-control especially in connection

with sexual relation and there's lack of

orientation or recognition of position

and condition of self and environment

evidenced by peculiar bumptiousness

so-called that is particularly

noticeable one would naturally expect

some such character for the negro

because the whole posterior part of the

brain is large and the whole anterior

portion is small

here bean is saying prejudice nonsense

basically the old version of yeah blacks

are stupid but they sure can sing and

play basketball except 100 years ago

they said melodious articulation and

capable handicrafts

means data was so groundbreaking that an

editorial in the journal american

medicine in 1907 said the anatomical

basis for the complete failure of negro

schools to impart higher studies

the brain cannot comprehend them any

more than a horse can understand the

rule of three

leaders in all political parties now

acknowledge the error of human equality

it may be practicable to rectify the

error and remove a menace to our

prosperity a large electorate without

brains essentially blacks were too

stupid to be allowed to vote

let's take a look at the plot graph

again

it looks good

almost too good

well if you thought that you weren't the

only one franklin b maul bean's mentor

at john hopkins university also was

skeptical and decided to repeat the

study he did so with one change he made

sure he didn't know which were brains of

blacks and which were brains of whites

the results take a look

as you can see no difference

clearly bean was not making an objective

study but setting out to prove a

previously held bias he had as incorrect

and dishonest as bean was though the

findings of his study persisted well

into the 1970s this confusion regarding

brain and head measuring continues

however eminent scientists such as

pierre paul broca a physician that

placed his name on the section of the

brain responsible for speech production

are definitely not below throwing mud at

a wall and seeing if it sticks

funnily enough i recently had a patient

with brocas of asia now two things will

be of interest here the cranial index

and measurements of the form and magnum

let's deal with the cranial index first

this simple measurement was the ratio of

maximum width to maximum length of the

skull

those with a ratio of 0.75 or less were

referred to as dolichocephalic those

shorter skulls with a ratio of 0.8 or

higher were called brachycephalic this

was popularized by the swedish scientist

anders retzias

of course the claim was that nordic and

germanic people were dulce cephalic and

hence more intelligent this upset french

scientists as they were brachiocephalic

and hence refused to affirm that belief

that brachycephaly was a trait of less

intelligent races of course only because

they too exhibited the trait

the biggest problem of the cranial index

however was this african blacks and

australian aborigines were the leaky

cephalic not only this but they were the

longest skulled people in the world

hilariously they tried to work around

this by claiming that blacks only had

large skulls because

they have larger occipital lobes and

smaller frontal lobes remember

apparently a sign of lesser intelligence

thus extending their skull further

backwards and hence resulting in longer

skulls as for french brachycephaly well

that was only because french people had

wider faces apparently nothing to do

with the supposed lack of intelligence

or frontal lobe mass

the mental gymnastics are admirable i'll

give them that

now the form and magnum the former

magnum is a hole at the base of our

skull where the spinal cord passes

through

why is this interesting well in

embryology of mammals the former magnum

is originally at the base of the skull

but then migrates to a position behind

the skull the human former magnum

doesn't migrate much at all though as it

must stay at the base of the skull so

you can stand on your two legs stand

upright and look around normally

in apes the former magnum is not the

base of the skull but also not behind

the skull fully like in other mammals

instead it's in between these two

positions as you may already suspect of

course the racialists will try to spin

this in a way where blacks are closer to

apes due to the position of their former

magnums being more in the middle

position while whites obviously will

have their former magnums right at the

base of the skull

after reading about this for a while you

start c coming a mile away

this was hotly debated at one point with

some like pritchard saying there's no

difference between blacks and whites

while racialists like varay showing

grades where the more superior races had

a more forward position form and magnum

broca the french physician already

discussed decided to find the truth on

the matter once and for all he got a

bunch of skulls as these guys usually do

and began measuring the results again

conveniently blacks had foreign magnums

more posterior while whites had former

magnets more anteriorly positioned

however the original argument was that

the measurement was only the relative

position of the foreign magnum on the

cranium itself

not to the face projecting in front of

the cranium

broken realized this and decided to redo

his measurements to clear this debate

the results

blacks had more anteriorly facing former

magnums than whites by their own

arbitrary rules this meant that blacks

were superior to whites

now did they admit this

of course not instead they changed the

criteria yet again

more anteriorly facing foreign magnums

didn't mean that blacks were more

superior it instead meant that

they lacked interior brain power

relative to whites blacks have lost a

lot supposedly in the frontal lobe

department and gained in the occipital

lobe thus almost moving the cranium back

with the position of the former magnum

remaining the same

voila a false appearance of black

advantage

the anterior cranial projection of

whites surpasses that of negroes by 4.9

percent thus while the former magnum

negros is further back with respect to

their incisors broken's most forward

point in his anterior measure that

included the face it is on the contrary

further forward with respect to the

anterior edge of the brain to change the

cranium of a white into that of a negro

we would have not only to move the jaw

forward but also to reduce the front of

the cranium that is to make the anterior

brain atrophy and to give as

insufficient compensation part of the

material extracted to the posterior

cranium in other words in negroes the

facial and occipital regions are

developed to the detriment of the

frontal region

ah beautiful flip-flopping seen yet

again of course sexism goes hand in hand

with racism hushke a german

anthropologist said the negro brain

possesses a spinal cord of the type

found in children and women and beyond

this approaches the type of brain found

in higher apes herve a colleague of

broca said men of the black races have a

brain scarcely heavier than that of a

white woman

these negative views from those in and

around broca would eventually lead to

influencing such figures like mussolini

who admired gustav lebon of the broken

school

sadly this topic isn't within the scope

of this video

continuing on we see a new phenomenon

begin that of recapitulation very

briefly recapitulation in the social

dominant sense is the idea that since

evolution happens in steps those steps

of younger more developed organisms

resemble adult forms of less developed

organisms

in a more concrete example the adults of

inferior groups must be like children of

superior groups because the child

represents a primitive adult ancestor

yet even more concretely in the minds of

these racists if adult blacks and women

are like white male children then they

are living representatives of an

ancestral stage in the evolution of

white males essentially this was a

system of ranking race not only by

brains and heads but by entire bodies

e.d cope a celebrated american

paleontologist that helped develop the

theory of recapitulation divided four

inferior stages of human development of

white male children that is

non-white populations

all women

southern europeans as opposed to the

supposedly superior northern europeans

and lower classes within the superior

race cope was a heavy proponent of the

idea of nordic supremacy and heavily

supported attempts at preventing jewish

and inferior european migration to the

u.s his justification was apparently

that warmer climates cause premature

maturation of all faculties including

mental as a result male southern

europeans have more female and infantile

cognitive abilities than the superior

northerners in colder climates

g stanley hill american's leading

psychologist at the time said most

savages in most respects are children or

because of sexual maturity more properly

adolescence of adult size this was said

by a leading scientist in a supposedly

highly developed country in 1904

remember this isn't 500 years ago this

isn't ancient history this is 115 years

ago almost living memory looking at this

through a materialist lens we can easily

see the farce for what it really is a

disgusting justification of imperialism

benjamin kidd a prominent social

darwinist extended the argument to

justify colonial expansion into tropical

africa

we are dealing with peoples who

represent the same stage in the history

of the development of the race that the

child does in history of the development

of the individual the tropics will not

therefore be developed by the natives

themselves

how incredibly convenient

the poet of imperialism rudyard kipling

even included recapitulation theory into

his famous poem of the white man's

burden

take up the white man's burden send

forth the best you breed

go bind your sons to exile to serve the

captives need to wait in heavy harness

unfluttered folk and wild your new

caught sullen peoples half devil and

half child

no more is it more obvious that

recapitulation theory is nothing but a

thinly disguised attempt at justifying

imperialism then in a letter from teddy

roosevelt to henry cabo lodge in which

he said the verse was very poor poetry

but made good sense from the expansion

point of view the greatest irony is that

after the 1920s the theory of

recapitulation collapsed and was

replaced by a theory of neotimi which

stated the exact opposite under neoteny

more infantile features were shared

between human children and baby apes

however as apes grew into adulthood

these similarities quickly disappear now

the implication is the more infantile a

race is the more developed and less

ape-like it is to quote gold under

recapitulation adults of inferior races

are like children of superior races

under neoteny superior groups retain

their child-like characteristics as

adults while inferior groups pass

through the higher phase of childhood

and then degenerate towards apis

now consider the conventional prejudice

of white scientists

whites are superior blacks are inferior

under recapitulation black adults should

be like white children but under neoteny

white adults should be like black

children luis bulk the main proponent of

the new atomy theory conveniently

doesn't mention something interesting

women tend to have more physically

infantile features than men hence they'd

logically be more developed superior

asians tend to retain a youthful

appearance for longer and many asian men

can't grow full beards these features

could also be considered physically

infantile making them superior he of

course conveniently never made such a

connection

neotony is still semi-alive in some

circles today as influential british

psychologist aj aisink used it to argue

for black inferiority in his 1971 work

of course he was utterly wrong

honestly this video could go on forever

there is no shortage of scientists

physicians philosophers and other appeal

to authority types that believed built

upon and peddled this nonsense however i

think i've done enough to show not only

how the history itself is disgusting and

hypocritical but how it's also riddled

with data fudging ridiculous biases and

just outright nonsense

this is not the end of the story however

subscribe to be informed on when i

upload the next videos where i'll talk

about why racists are