Take Your Choice
Separation or Mongrelization

By Theodore G. Bilbo

Chapter VI
Inequalities of the
White and Negro Races

Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. -Daniel, 5:27
THE PREVIOUS chapter has presented the demands of the Negro leaders for complete economic, political, and social equality between the white and black races in the United States. These demands must necessarily be based on the acceptance of the doctrine of the equality of the two races and the denial of the inferiority of the Negro. If racial differences do not exist, then these writers are asking for equality for equal races; but if differences do exist, then they are asking for equality for unequals, and the very basis of their argument is refuted. It is the purpose of this chapter to show that both history and science defy the theory of the equality of the Caucasian and the Negro races.

At this point, it should be pointed out that no attempt will be made here to reconcile the different theories as to the origin of the races of mankind. We leave the reader to his own conclusions concerning the plan which was used by the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth in creating and separating the different races. The fact that God did ordain the division of the people of the earth into separate races as a part of the Divine plan is sufficient for our purpose. We do know that for thousands of years, the races have been constituted practically as they are today and grouped into three great divisions: the white, the yellow, and the black. We also know that from the dawn of history the different races have left a record of their accomplishments and achievements upon the pages of time, and from this chronicle we can compare their qualities, abilities, and their contributions to the progress of mankind.

In Chapter II we found that all the great civilizations of the world have been produced by the white race. Could this have been accidental? Over thousands of years, north, south, east, and west, everywhere, under all conditions, Caucasian man has manifested his conquering, victorious qualities. Throughout the years, history records no achievements of the Negro race which challenge in any manner whatsoever the superiority of the culture and civilization of the white man.

Such is the lesson of history. It shows us that all civilizations derive from the white race, that none can exist without its help, and that a society is great and brilliant only so far as it preserves the blood of the noble group that created it, provided that this group itself belongs to the most illustrious branch of our species. (1)
The history of civilization and culture is the history of the Caucasian race. Great and glorious cities, monuments and Coliseums, amphitheatres and cathedrals, empires and nations have testified to the ability of the white man. He has bridged the rivers, spanned the oceans. conquered continents, and built mighty civilizations out of wildernesses. Great men, world leaders, brilliant minds that have mastered things material and spiritual, all the endless creations of art, science, literature, law, religion, and of every activity known to man blaze across the pages of history to give evidence of the superior ability of the white race. It was by the white man's brain that the atoms of creation were split and the atomic bomb became the greatest power on earth.
. . .all of this infinite cloud of witnesses gather swarming upon us from the whole firmament of the past and proclaim with Pentecostal tongue the glory and supremacy of Caucasian man. It seems impossible to represent in human speech, or by symbols intelligible to the human mind, the variety and immensity of this consentient testimony of all historic time and place. Not to be overwhelmed and overawed, much more convinced, by such a prodigious spectacle of evidence, is to gaze at midnoon into the heavens and cry out, 'Where is the sun?' For over against all these transcendent achievements, what has the West African to set? What art? What science? What religion? What mora]ity? What philosophy? What history? What even one single aspect of civilization or culture or higher humanity? It would seem to be an insult to the reader's intelligence, if we should prolong the comparison. (2)
The Negro has had just as long as the white man to develop a civilization of his own. Thousands and tens of thousands of years have passed, and the black man has not lifted his people from the darkness of Africa. If the white and black races are equal in ability, then why have they not produced equal civilizations? Or why has not the African exhibited his ability to reproduce civilization and culture after the way has been blazed for him? It is a matter of historical truth that no Negro race has ever initiated a civilization and "only, when it is mixed with some other can it even be initiated into one." (3) This may well be said to be the real reason why the American Negro is feverishly and unrelentingly demanding the integration of his kind into every phase of the white man's civilization- in the churches and schools, in politics and government, in the army and navy, and in the air. The only known request that he has not made is for the permission to help handle the atomic bomb! He is afraid of that "bug"!

There were some American Negroes who were repatriated by the American Colonization Society to West Africa and established the Republic of Liberia in 1847. However, they have provided us with no startling revelations of the black man's ability because even in the creation of the Liberian Republic the Negroes adopted almost in toto the Constitution of the United States. The only noted changes which they made in adopting the American Constitution for their form and scheme of government were two amendments:

1. an amendment to provide specifically that no white man should ever vote in the Republic of Liberia,

2. an amendment to provide that no white man should ever own a foot of land in Liberia. This second provision, however, does not prevent the leasing of the lands of Liberia to traders, merchants, and manufacturers. (4)

The accomplishments of the white and black races in world history prove without a shadow of a doubt the inequality of the two races. "Wherefore by their fruit ye shall know them." (5) The white man has shown his superior ability by the great civilizations and cultures which he has created.

White Americans who have built the civilization of the new world are the descendants of the white men who created the civilization of Europe. Whether a descendant of the Nordic or Mediterranean or Alpine branch of the white race, (6) the white man in America can look back with pride at the accomplishments of his racial family. "Every human being unites in himself the blood of thousands of ancestors, stretching back through thousands of years," (7) and the white man has a right to be proud of his world-conquering Caucasian blood.

What of the ancestors of the American Negro whom the proponents of the doctrine of the equality of the races would attempt to make the equal of the white American? Edmund Burke once wisely said: "People will not look forward to posterity who are not anxious to look backward to their ancestry." Often we hear mention of the ancestors of the Negroes who were slaves in this country. but very seldom is reference made to the African tribes from whence the slaves were brought to the new world.

We are now in position to consider the mental, moral, and physical characters of the negroes and negroids, especially the tribes found in the West Soudan; the Congo Basin, the Slave and Gold coasts of Africa,- in fact the stock from which was derived the negroes that were brought to the United States as slaves. These are the negroes, and the descendants of them are of the race or races that interest us here in this country. It is these we have upon our hands, and it is these we have to deal with in the condition of affairs widely known as the 'negro problem.'

Taking up first some of their external characters, it will be seen that the hair is short, black, and frizzly,- in fact, distinctly wooly.... The negro has a large black eye, with the sclerotic coat tinged with yellow,- a distinctive character frequently noticed in the typical west-coast negroes. The jaws exhibit decided prognathism, or projection forward, the facial angle being seventy degrees against the eighty-two of the average white man. Another marked feature is the nose, which is broad and flat, with dilated nostrils, and with the ridge concaved, often showing the red inner surface of the mucous membrane. The lips are very large, protruding and heavy. Sometimes they are everted, displaying the red mucous membrane of the mouth. The molar bones and zvgomatic arches being prominent, the cheeks are made equally so. These fu]l-blooded negroes have black skins or a deep brownish tint. Climate has nothing whatever to do with this, nor has any special pigment. It is due to a superabundance of coloring matter between the true and the scarf skins. Soft and velvety to the touch, the negro epidermis is, for the most part, quite free from hair, and would be interesting were it not for the outrageous odor it emits, especially under heat and excitement. This is sometimes so strong that I have known persons of our own race brought almost to the stage of emesis when compelled to inhale it for any length of time.

In the skull of the negro the crania] capacity and the brain itself are much under size. On the average the former will measure thirty-five ounces as against forty-five for the Caucasian skull. In the negro the cranial bones are dense and unusually thick, converting his head into a veritable battering-ram: moreover, the cranial sutures unite very early in life. This checks the development of the brain long before the same takes place in other races, and this fact accounts to some extent for the more or less sudden stunting of the negro intellect shortly after arriving at puberty.

In short, as has long been known, whether living in Africa or living in America, the typical west-coast negro is, in his physical organization as near the anthropoid apes as are any of the savage races of mankind, - perhaps the nearest. He is untold ages nearer than is the typical representative of the best in the white race.

We may say the same thing of his mental and moral qualifications. Professor Keane states that the mental and moral differences between the negro and the white races are quite as well marked as the physical ones, 'and as both are the gradual outcome of external conditions, fixed by heredity, it follows that the attempt to suddenly transform the negro mind by foreign culture must be, as it has proved to be, as futile as the attempt would be to suddenly transform his physical type,'- a point that the untutored masses in the United States fail to see. The negro has, in fact, no morals, and it is therefore out of the question for him to be immoral; in other words, he is non-moral rather than immoral.

Throughout the entire historic period of man's career upon the earth, the chapter on the negro is practically a record of the lowest savagery, soon lapsing back into the mere tradition of wild and untutored tribes, whose social institutions are at the lowest possible level, with fetichism for religion, coupled with torture, cruelty, slavery, cannibalism, and a common belief in sorcery. Where not checked by the presence of the European, the native shambles ln the middle Congo Basin are still hung with choice cuts of human bodies, and these continue to be sold in the open marketplace. In Africa they even barter their dead relatives, and those securing the corpses in this way eat them. They will even disinter them for the same purpose and eat them after decomposition has set in. The negroes who still practise this in Africa are several millions in number, and close blood relations of the race in the United States. (8)

Historically and scientifically, the inferiority of the Negro race when compared to the white race is both a proved and obvious fact. It is wholly unnecessary to compile statistics and opinions of distinguished physicians and ethnologists who classify the Negro race as inferior to the Caucasian. The following quotations from the works of Dr. Robert B. Bean are typical of the conclusions of scholars who have studied the Negro race:
The frontal region of the Negro skull has been repeatedly shown to be much smaller than that of the Caucasian. Considering this fact, the conclusion is reached that the Negro has a smaller proportion of the faculties pertaining to the frontal lobe than the Caucasian. The Negro, then, lacks reason, judgment, apperception, affection, self-control, will power, orientation, ethical and esthetic attributes, and the relation of the ego (of personality or self) to environment.

The conclusion is that the brain of the Negro is smaller than the brain of the white, the stature is also lower, and the body weight is less, and any crossing of the two races results in a brain weight relative to the proportion of white blood in the individual.

The skull capacity of the Negro has been repeatedly demonstrated to be less than that of the Caucasian. (9)

From the beginning of time down to the present day, the Negro race has been weighed in the scales and found wanting. Although those who are advocating complete equality for the whites and blacks in the United States claim that "a modern science" supports their demands, neither this argument nor their shouts against what they call "racial prejudice" can refute facts and logic. The chief points which are characteristic of the Negro race may be listed as follows: (10)
1. The abnormal length of the arm, which on an average exceeds that of the Caucasian by about two inches.

2. The projection of the jaws and the facial angle which is about 70 as compared with 82 for the Caucasian.

3. Weight of the brain, which indicates cranial capacity of 35 ounces, as compared with 20 for the highest gorilla and 45 for the Caucasian.

4. Full black eye, with black iris and yellowish sclerotic coat.

5. Short flat snub nose with dilated nostrils and concave ridge.

6. Thick protruding lips, plainly showing the inner red surface.

7. High and prominent cheek bones.

8. Exceedingly thick cranium, enabling the Negro to butt with the head and resist blows which would break any ordinary European skull.

9. Correspondingly weak lower limbs with a broad flat foot with low instep and heel projecting backwards.

10. Deep brown or blackish complexion which is in some cases distinctly black.

11. Short, black hair, elliptical or almost flat in section and distinctly woolly.

12. Thick skin, mostly hairless, and emitting a peculiar rancid odor.

13. Frame of medium height, thrown somewhat out of the perpendicular by the shape of the pelvis, the spine, and the backward projection of the head.

14. Cranial sutures, which close much earlier than in the other races and thus seem to arrest the growth of the brain at an earlier age.

The Negroes in the United States have been citizens for some eighty years. During this time, they have advanced and made notable progress, but they have accomplished nothing which will refute the age-old proof of the inferiority of the Negro race in comparison to the Caucasian.
But to what end is it necessary to marshal facts, discuss theories, and draw conclusions to demonstrate what to the average observant American citizen is already a well established proposition, viz.- that the negro, as he is found today, in our community, is in all respects greatly inferior to the white man with whom he is brought into relationship and resulting competition? Self-evident truths require no argumentative demonstration. If there be those who, after observation and reflection, are not to be convinced of the truth of the foregoing statement as to existing negro inferiority, then this work is not entitled to their serious consideration. (11)
We are fully aware that there are different theories being currently publicized as to the reason for the inferiority of the Negro race. However, whether this status is the result of a natural and inherent inferiority never to be overcome or whether it is caused, as sometimes contended, by the fact that the Negro is a backward race, thousands of years behind the white man in civilization and culture, the practical result is the same. If inequality and inferiority exist, then the doctrine of the equality of the races is absolutely false. And if this theory is unfounded and untrue, then the proponents of racial equality have no basis upon which to argue that the blacks should be given full equality with the whites in this country, including the right of intermarriage.

We hear much about the so-called equality of the races from certain Negroes who seek to defy the laws of God and man in order to mix and mingle and intermarry with white people, but we seldom hear them express any gratitude to white Americans and particularly to Southern white Americans for what has been done for the Negro in America. The slave traffic may have been evil and horrible and the institution of slavery may have been wrong; nevertheless, slavery in America definitely left the Negro in a better condition than it found him. The savage, cannibalistic, barbarian Negro slaves were fed, clothed, civilized, and taught Christianity.

No other people in the history of the world have had thrust upon them a perfected civilization. . . They were given a government, a national home, a citizenship, free schools, religion, language, books, art and science, with helpful hands to instruct them in all economic and civic relations. All of this required a thousand years of experience for other nations to acquire. In all of these contributions their race had no part or parcel in the making or in the creation. All other nations had to fight, work, bleed and die to procure these things. Not so with the American Negro. All these things came to him as a free gift from the white man. They were left a penniless liability among former masters in the South, who assumed responsibility for their welfare. The debt of gratitude they owe the people of the Southern States can never be paid. Instead of gratitude, they revile and abuse their benefactors.

The godfathers of this race in America were the people of the New England States. No sooner had he been born and while he was in his swaddling clothes the godfathers cast him into(the lap of the people of the Southern States, who had been forced to care for, feed and clothe and educate, and Christianize, four generations of these people, and at the same time support, maintain and educate their own children.

For the past eighty years the Southern people have borne the heavy burden of this responsibility and have taxed themselves to educate and civilize more than four or five million Negro children at a cost of nearly a billion dollars. (12)

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of education; grammar schools, high schools, colleges, and universities are indispensable. But who will claim that training and teaching in the school room can overcome racial characteristics? The laws of heredity exist and can not be denied or changed. Every child is a child of its race, inheriting his racial qualities from thousands of ancestors. The child of Negro parents is born of a race that has never shown constructive power, of ancestors who have never founded a civilization, of forefathers who have imitated but never created.
The whole of history testifies to this truth. As the Englishman Meredith Townsend says: 'None of the black races, whether negro or Australian, have shown within the historic time the capacity to develop civilization. They have never passed the boundaries of their own habitats as conquerors, and never exercised the smallest influence over peoples not black. They have never founded a stone city, have never built a ship, have never produced a literature, have never suggested a creed. . . There seems to be no reason for this except race.' (13)
The importance of environment must be readily acknowledged. But to claim that education and environment are more important or can satisfactorily replace racial integrity and blood purity is to brand as false both history and biology. This we can not do. Spencer, Darwin, Haeckel, Mendel, Pearson and many other great scientists have lived and taught, and we know that the power of heredity can not be denied.
It is not all in training up
A child against its will:
To silver scour a pewter cup,
-- It will be pewter still.
Environment has placed the American Negro in the midst of a great civilization produced by the white man, but neither environment nor education can change the basic traits and characteristics of the race to which the Negro in the United States belongs.
'The endowment of each generation at birth is dictated by heredity, but all that it acquires subsequently is the gift of environment.' (Tillinghast.) Mental characteristics are subject to the laws governing heredity. With regard to race, heredity and environment, Robert R. Marett, Reader of Social Anthropology in the University of Oxford, says in his Anthropology, 'nor is it enough to take note simply of physical feature - the shape of the skull, the color of the skin, the tint and texture of the hair and so on. There are likewise mental characteristics that seem to be bound up closely with the organism and to follow the breed' (p.23), 'for race, let it not be forgotten, presumably extends to mind as well as to body. It is not merely skin deep' (p. 60), and 'circumstances can unmake; but of themselves they never yet made man, nor any other form of life' (p. 129) And let us dismiss the unwarranted assumption that environment will directly and immediately affect heredity. Heredity may be affected in but one way - congenitally. You may breed a superior type of Negro by selective mating, just as you may breed a superior type of Caucasian by the same process; but no amount of imitation will instill a creative instinct or capacity into the Negro, nor will education or sympathetic aid of any kind. (14)
There are certain mental, physical, and moral characteristics which belong to the Negro race. And these characteristics are thus attributed to the race which has never produced a great civilization in world history, and one which has produced very little indeed during the years of its existence in America. The most outstanding leaders which have come from the Negro race would have passed unnoticed if their skin had been white. They have been prominent in this country because they were Negroes.
Were it not for the super-sensltive mongrels of North America, there would be no clamor for 'equality' of races; nor would there be any eminent 'negroes.' Booker Washington was a mulatto, frederick douglas was a mulatto, bruce, turner, dubois, miller - these are not negroes! Were they white men they would be obscure, but by social custom and by law they are recognized to be negroes, and as such they stand at the head of their race. (15)
History and science refute the doctrine of the equality of the white and Negro races which is proclaimed by the proponents of racial equality in the United States today. There are inequalities and differences between the white and black races, and all the history of civilization affirms that the superior position belongs to the Caucasian. The Negroid writers and the negrophilists will continue to deny the facts of history and the findings of science, for they are color-blind, but white America must realize these truths and accept them as a basis from which we must work to bring about an adequate and permanent solution to the Negro problem.

If any Negro reads this chapter and has just reason to think that he does not possess the inferior qualities of mind, body, and spirit which the greatest and most reliable scientists - students of the comparative qualities of the races - have pointed out, then let him thank God for that portion of white blood which flows through his veins, because of the sin of miscegenation on the part of one or more of his ancestors.


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Notes
  1. De Gobineau, Arthur, The Inequality of Human Races (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915), p. 210.

  2. Smith, William B., The Color Line, p. 32.

  3. De Gobineau, Arthur, The Inequality of Human Races, p. 212.

  4. The Firestone Rubber Company has leased a large area of Liberia for the purpose of establishing a rubber plantation.

  5. Matthew 7:20.

  6. A discussion of the three branches of the Caucasian race and a racial history of the white race in Europe may be found in: Grant, Madison, The Passing of the Great Race (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916).

  7. Grant, Madison, The Passing of the Great Race, p. 31.

  8. Shufeldt, R W. America's Greatest Problem: The Negro, pp. 26-28, 30, 36-37.

  9. Pickett, William P., The Negro Problem: Abraham Lincoln's Solution, pp 10-11, as reprinted from Some Racial Peculiarities of the Negro Brain, by Robert Bennett Bean, University of Michigan, vol. V., No. 4.

  10. See Smith, William B., The Color Line, pp. 46-49, where these fourteen characteristic points concerning the Negro race have been quoted from the works of Prof. A. H. Keane, a profound student of the qualities of the Negro.

  11. Pickett, William P., The Negro Problem: Abraham Lincoln's Solution, p. 11.

  12. Irwin, John R., Let's Keep the United States White, p. 6.

  13. Stoddard, Lothrop, The Rising Tide of Color (New York: Charles Scribner s Sons, 1921), p. 101.

  14. Cox, Earnest S., White America, pp. 312, 314.

  15. Cox, Earnest S., White America, p. 190.