>Also, when discussing race and science, we might wish
>to keep in mind, that throughout the 19th century, and
>well into the 20th, a great many leading scientists took
>the notion of race seriously as a biological category.
>It really wasn't until the mid-20th century that there
>appeared persuasive scientific refutations of the notion
>of race. Up to that time racists could and did claim the
>authority of science for their ideas concerning humanity.
At least with science refutation is possible.
I can't resist posting Yip Harburg's musical rhetoric on this point, first performed around 1944, and made known (if not famous) by Josh White. 'Black' and 'white' U.S. blood supplies were segregated through WWII:
Free and Equal Blues
I went down to that St. James Infirmary, and I saw some plasma there, I ups and asks the doctor man, "Say was the donor dark or fair?" The doctor laughed a great big laugh, and he puffed it right in my face, He said, "A molecule is a molecule, son, and the damn thing has no race."
And that was news, yes that was news, That was very, very, very special news. 'Cause ever since that day we’ve had those free and equal blues.
"You mean you heard that doc declare That the plasma in that test tube there could be White man, black man, yellow man, red?" "That’s just what that doctor said." The doc put down his doctor book and gave me a very scientific look And he spoke out plain and clear and rational, He said, "Metabolism is international."
(Chorus)
Then the doc rigged up his microscope with some Berlin blue blood, And, by gosh, it was the same as Chun King, Quebechef, Chattanooga, Timbuktoo blood Why, those men who think they’re noble Don’t even know that the corpuscle is global Trying to disunite us with their racial supremacy, And flying in the face of old man chemistry, Taking all the facts and trying to twist ëem, But you can’t overthrow the circulatory system.
(Chorus)
So I stayed at that St. James Infirmary. (I couldn’t leave that place, it was too interesting) But I said to the doctor, "Give me some more of that scientific talk talk," and he did: He said, "Melt yourself down into a crucible Pour yourself out into a test tube and what have you got? Thirty-five hundred cubic feet of gas, The same for the upper and lower class." Well, I let that pass . . . "Carbon, 22 pounds, 10 ounces" "You mean that goes for princes, dukeses and countses?" "Whatever you are, that’s what the amounts is: Carbon, 22 pounds, 10 ounces; iron, 57 grains." Not enough to keep a man in chains. "50 ounces of phosophorus, that’s whether you’re poor or prosperous." "Say buddy, can you spare a match?" "Sugar, 60 ordinary lumps, free and equal rations for all nations. Then you take 20 teaspoons of sodium chloride (that’s salt), and you add 38 quarts of H2O (that’s water), mix two ounces of lime, a pinch of chloride of potash, a drop of magnesium, a bit of sulfur, and a soupcon of hydrochloric acid, and you stir it all up, and what are you?" "You’re a walking drugstore." "It’s an international, metabolistic cartel."
And that was news, yes that was news, So listen, you African and Indian and Mexican, Mongolian, Tyrolean and Tartar, The doctor’s right behind the Atlantic Charter. The doc’s behind the new brotherhood of man, As prescribed at San Francisco and Yalta, Dumbarton Oaks, and at Potsdam: Every man, everywhere is the same, when he’s got his skin off. And that’s news, yes that’s news, That’s the free and equal blues!
Yip Harburg lyrics/ Earl Robinson music Available on the Smithsonian compilation Josh White, "Free and Equal Blues"
Jenny Brown