The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1943-12-23
REGARDLESS OF RACE, CREED, OR COLOR

IhENAaDLESS OF nASFIs ShELD, oh NoI4oN
IT'HE WORLD owes to Hitler's noisy myth of
"Aryan' supremacy the fact that never in the
IWOrIdS history were people so race conscious as
they are today. And never were assumptions OF
racial superiority or inferority based on a
Igreater degree Of misunderstanding and unreasOn-
ing prejudice Hitler himself has adroitly used
his racial myth for political purposes. On the one
hand he claims supremacy for a So-called "Aryan"
race, and for the Germans as the most purely
"Aryan' people. On the other hand he attempts
to set the Chinese, the Filipinos, and the Meane-
SLAMS against their western allies by telling them
that the United Nations are fighting 'white
mans war" And as if to remove all doubt about
the political motivation of his racial theories he
arbitrarily classifies his own allies, the Japanese,
as "Aryan.''
This is a war against unprinciped aggression,
and that is no racial monopoly. In the West, the
aggressors are the "Aryan' NaziS, who want to
impose on the world their theory of German su-
periority. In the East the aggressors are the
Japanese, who want to impose the theory Of their
congenita right to rule as descendants of the sun
goddess.
The thing to remember about these claims,
and about less arrogant claims to racial superior
ity is that they have nothing whatever to do with
race. They simply so many excuses for injus-
tice and lnhumanty; so many Justlcatlons for
the desire to keep another people another in
dvdual down. This is an a-mportant lesson for
our time, and one which can be more easily mas
tered if we have a scientific definition of race. A
committee Of the American Society of Scientific
Workers has undertaken to provide such defnl-
tiOn by sponsoring a pamphlet "The Races Of
Mankind" 1t is the work of Professor Ruth Bene-
dict and DR.. Gene Weltfish of the Department OF
AnthrOpOOgy of Columbia University. The au-
thOrS evidently have more admiration than first
hand knowledge Of the Soviet Union, and one
must therefore, discount their conviction that the
Soviet Government has set an example for either
nations in its handling of the race question But
their anthropoogy in this pamphlet is sound, and
their general conclusions valid.
The human anatomy, they tell us, proves that
all races Of mankind are descended from commOn
ancestors. They are so many different branches
of the same family tree. The human race
the corners Of the globe. In time, certain second
ary characteristics developed by which people
could be recognized as belonging to different parts
Of the world. Those who settled near the equator
developed darker skin color than those who
settled in the north. Other characteristics were
flizzy or straight hair, blue eyes, the fold of
skin over the inner corner of the eye which pro-
duced what we call the slant eye.
But the human anatomy remains basically the
same for all races. The blood shows racial
difference Tall men and short men, round-heads
and lOng-headS, are all to be found among men of
every COLOR And color itself is determined by two
chemicals which are to be found in the skin of
every human bClng-carOtene, which gives a
yellow tint, and meanin, which gives a brown
tint. Whether you are black brown red or white
depends simply upon the proportion of substances
in your own skin.
And there are no racial "Aryans" The word
signifies, simply, people who speak the nd0-
European, "Aryan" language There are three
main human races-the Caucasians, the Mongo-
Ioids and the NcgrodS. Each has various sub
and none is 100 per cent pure in the
scientific sense Moreover, if YOU could gather
together all the people of one subdivision or an
another no sense Of racial kinShp would unite
them; they would be divided from one another by|
differences Of language and culture.
For culture - history, custom, religion, Ian
guage-cutS across racial lines. And so do prin-
cipeS. We Of the United Nations, people Of every
color and OF many cultures and crcedS are in this
war to the end that all peoples everywhere shall
enjoy the right to lead their lives without fear of
by foreign aggrcsSOrs. In the fight
inc armies and on the industrial front, white men,
brown men, and black men stand shoulder toI
shoulder in this struggle.
On the humanitarian front the picture is the
same. Through the Labor League for Human
Rights AI'L members, whatever their racial orr
Fund. Contributions come from people of
AnGlo-SaXon Celtic, Germanic, Slav, NegrocI
Mexican, American Indian origin. And they goI
to help AnglO-SaXOnS, MCditemaneanS, SlavS,I
Chinese, ScandinaVians. Labors relief program isl
global, like the war. And Al'L members, who this.
year topped the impressive record of giving which,
they set wear ago, are proving that it is true
not only anthrOpo0gicaly but spiritually as well,
that "thc races of mankind are what the Bible
says they are-brOthCrS."