The Denver Jewish news., 1924-06-19
STATISTICS ABOUT RACE
= SUPERIORITY B U n k'
SAYS SCIENTIST.


When scientists quote statistics to
prove race superiority, they are
merely defending the prejudices of
their race, is the startling contention
of famous scientist in The Monorah
journal. The anthropological data
marshalled in the recent immigration
debates to establish the superiority of
the Nordic strains to other racial
strains is branded as thoroughly bias
ed and scientifically unsound by Ed
ward Sapir, noted scientific writer
and Chief of the Division of Anthro-
pology of the National Museum of
Canada at Ottawa, in an important
article Racial Superiority" in the
June-July issue of The Menorah
Journal
1t is Of paramount Importance to
realize that nearly all discussions of
racial ability are most powerfully
biased by the necessity of the indi
vidual ego's triumph in the end. The
race of any party to the discussion
must be declared triumphant or, at
the least, not incapacitated by nature
1 for eventual triumph. 1t is a very
remarkable and very interesting
fact that in the huge volume of
racial controversy it is always the
race or the supposed race (for it is
Z q, ,trisn ,,,aO ,rbn Lypnu-s bis apcaStnrl
of the writer which carries off the
palm of victory. 1t is strange
"science" indeed in which there are
classes of questioners. When
"Nordic" scientists gravely ascertains
that the "Nordic" race is the one
truly superior variety of mankind
and, still more gravely, opines that
more than proportionate numerical
increase in other races is a menace"
| it is difficult not to relish the humor
of his position. In a tentative way
one sympathizes with him in his
splendid isolation and impending
sterility. Nor is humor lacking in
the spectacle of the wishful waiting
of an enthusiastic Jew who is ready
to bless the world with his mission"
So long as "Nordic" anthropologists
fail to discover the racial superiority
of the japanese and so long as Japan
ese anthropologists (the japanese, by
the way, have done some excellent
work in physical anthopology) remain
serenely unaware of the racial super
iority of the "Nordic," so long may the
outsider be pardoned for shrewd
suspicion that superior and inferior
race talk is "thin stuff"
In short, the feeling of group super
iority which we have tried to analyze
il its barest outlines may on Occa-
sion take the name and color of a
truly racial feeling, but in its essence
it is far more generalized phenome-
non. We may call it the feeling of
ethnic superiority; and we may note
that it is one of the more public
functions of anthropologists and of
those who quote and misquote anthro-
biological data to rationalize this feel
ing in terms of their favorite no.
menclature. A plain Englishman
(whatever that may mean in racial
terms) is content to say, 81 am not
a Frenchman and. if you ask me, |
am rather glad of that fact;" but the
anthropological way of stating the
same feeling is as follows: 81 do not
at all know what race l belong TO
individually, not having been properly
measured, but my people are blend
of Alpine, Mediterranean, and Baltic
or Nordic types, with the accent on
Nordic whenever it seems eXpedient
to place an accent. The Frenchmen
are another blend of Alpine, Mediter-
ranean, and Baltic types, but the per-
centages are different from those in
my country and I am afraid that