'Humans Are Not Equal': The Dishonest History of Race
Summary
TLDRThis 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
- ๐ 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.
- ๐ Historically, race-based hierarchies have been manipulated to place Europeans at the top, reflecting cultural biases rather than objective truth.
- ๐งฌ Even prominent figures like Charles Darwin were influenced by racialist sentiments, suggesting a historical trend of conflating race with evolutionary progress.
- ๐ Early taxonomies by scientists like Carl Linnaeus attempted to categorize human races based on superficial physical traits, which were later debunked.
- ๐๏ธ 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.
- ๐ง The belief in brain size correlating with intelligence was used to argue for racial superiority, despite being scientifically unfounded and based on biased measurements.
- ๐ 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.
- ๐ 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.
- ๐ซ Racialist theories have been consistently debunked and revised over time, yet their influence on societal attitudes and policies has been significant and long-lasting.
- ๐ 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
๐ 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.
๐ฌ 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.
๐ 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.
๐ง 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.
๐ 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.
๐งฌ 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กRace realism
๐กRacialism
๐กScientific racism
๐กRecapitulation theory
๐กNeoteny
๐กPhrenology
๐กCranial index
๐กEugenics
๐กRacial hierarchy
๐กMismeasurement
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
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The Origin of Race in the USA
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