The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-10-05
THE EVOLUTION OF A SUPERIOR
RACE.

I'm the American mulatto the evo-
luton of a superior race may be seen
in process"
The Literary Digest for September
10Th says that the above is the con-
Guiding sentence of an article on
1.-THE Superiority of the Mulatto," con-
tributed by E. B. Reuter-, of the Uni
versity of Chicago. to the American
Journal of Sociology (Chicago). By
superior" the writer means superior
to the pure negro race. That the mu-
latto is gaining gound he deduces in
the lrst place from an examination
of list entitled who's Who in Col
ored America" compiled by negroes
and containing the names OF one hun
dred and thirty-nine of the best kown
American negroes. In this list. Mr..
Reuter- says, there are not more than
four men of pure negro blood The
, successful men of the RAGS are, in
fact, he asserts, nearly all of BIZ
racial ancestry. An examination of
many other negro lists of successful
colored physicians, writer's. artists,
musicians, and business men bears
out this statement, and he believes
ii to be true of the past as we'll as the
present and of other countries than
the United States. He goes on:
in all times in the history of the
American negro, and in all fields of
human effort in which the negroes
have entered successful individuals,
with very few exceptions, have been
mulattoes. The black negroes, either
past or present, who have made any
marked degree of success are decid-
eddy rare exceptions.
Nor is this a popularity of the
American racial situation. The same
thing seems to be true in other coun-
tries in which mix-blood race ex-
lists alongside pureblOOd native
race. Boaz, pointing out the 'rela-
lively high degree of culture attain
ed by certain African tribes in west
ern Sudan, owing to their contact
with thhe invading Arabs, remarks:
The invaders intermarried with the
natives: and the mixed races, some
of which are almost purely negro,
have risen high above the level of
other African negroes In South At
RIGA the mulattoes are on distinct
ly higher level than are the ma
tives of the unmixed blood. In
the British West Indies the more cul-
tured mulattoes have been formed
into middle class group, separated
from, and superior to. the black peas
antry. The individuals of the race
who have risen to prominence in po-
litical and professional affairs have
been members of the mixed blood
caste. In north Brazil the mixed
blood Of Portuguese, Indian, and ne
gro ancestry are on a distinctly high
er social and intellectual plane than
are either the negroes or the native
Indians. In Mexico and elsewhere in
Central and South America the half
breeds form more less distinct and
separate class somewhat inferior to-
the whites and distinctly superior to,
the pure-blood natives. In the Phil
ippines the half-casts Of Chinese
Moro, as well as those of Spanish
Moro, origin, are well in advance, in
tellectually, of the pure-blood natives.
Every man Of the Filipino group who
has risen above mediocrity under the
Spanish as under the American oc0l-
pancy of the islands has been a man
Of biracial ancestry. Elsewhere the
same thing is true. The mixed-blood
race everywhere occupies a higher
status than does it's darker colored
racial parent, and it is from the ranks
of the mixed bloods that the supe-
rior individuals who appear from
time to time among the Backward
races have sprung"