Rethinking Race: Franz Boas and His Contemporaries

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Biological and Physical Anthropology Anthropology 1996 Rethinking Race: Franz Boas and His Contemporaries Vernon J. Williams Jr. Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Williams, Vernon J. Jr., "Rethinking Race: Franz Boas and His Contemporaries" (1996). Biological and Physical Anthropology. 1. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_biological_and_physical_anthropology/1 Rethinking Race This page intentionally left blank • • In n ace Franz Boas and His Contemporaries VernonJ. WilliamsJr. THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Copyright © 1996 by The University Press ofKentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine College, Berea College, Centre College ofKentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Club, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University ofKentucky, University ofLouisville, and Western Kentucky University. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 Library ofCongress Catalog-in-Publication Data Williams, VernonJ. Rethinking race: Franz Boas and his contemporaries / Vernon J. Williams, Jr. p. em. Includes bibliographic references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-8131-1963-4 (acid-free recycled paper).-ISBN 0-8131 0873-x (pbk: acid-free recycled paper) 1. Boas, Franz, 1858-1942. 2. Anthropologists-United States Biography. 3. Anthropologists-United States-Attitudes. 4. Physical anthropology-United States-History. 5. Racism-United States-History. 6. Mro-Americans-Public opinions. 7. Public opinion-United States. 8. United States-Race relations. 1. Title. GN21.B56W55 1996 305.8'96073-dc20 95-34914 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. §(i) Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica To the memory of my uncle Judge Francis Williams and my major professor William G. McLoughlin This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1 Franz Uri Boas's Paradox 4 2 Boas and the Mrican American Intelligentsia 37 3 The Myths ofMrica in the Writings ofBooker T. Washington 54 4 WE.B. Du Bois, George W Ellis, and the Reconstruction ofthe Image ofMrica 73 5 Robert Ezra Park and American Race and Class Relations 86 Conclusidn 102 Appendix: Toward an Ecumenical Mythistory 103 Notes 117 Bibliography 127 Index 135 This page intentionally left blank Preface More than a decade ago I read Alphonso Pinkney's The Myth ofProgress; that slim volume occasioned the writing ofthis book during the years that followed. I had just completed a manuscript that extolled the triumph of colorblind egalitarianism in the American social sciences during the years before 1930. I had nevertheless suggested in that same work that the social sciences had failed miserably after that date at resolving the issues revolv ing around the problem of the redistribution of wealth and power in the United States. Pinkney's work increased my awareness of the extent ofthe Reagan administration's attempts to discipline the African American poor (blacks made up one-third to one-half of the people affected by'programs that the president wanted to cut). I knew from experience that Reagan's declarations were the side effects ofan augmenting yet bogus conservatism and racism that had swept the United States since the late 1970s. As a con sequence, this book, which may be seen as an extension ofmy earlier work, is an attempt to reaffirm yet critically assess the rich, colorblind egalitarian traditions in the American social scientific disciplines. In short, I have at tempted to describe and analyze the ideas of persons who provided, in a time comparable to our own, the bases ofa sophisticated discussion ofrace and race relations. Several scholars read this work at its various sequences of development. I offer my sincere thanks to George M. Fredrickson, Leonard Harris, Nancy L. Grant, Wilson]. Moses, Nell I. Painter, and Amritjit Singh. My good colleague Harold D. Woodman and the head ofmy department, John ]. Contreni, have provided strong and steady support over the years at Purdue University. For needed financial support during this period I am in debted to Boston University, the American Council of Learned Societies, and Purdue University. The strong support ofall my peers and these insti tutions makes. it possible to confess that whatever errors of fact or in terpretation the book contains are attributable solely to the frailty of the author. ix This page intentionally left blank Introduction For more than two generations Franz Uri Boas-thanks primarily to the yeomanlike work of several historians and historically minded social scientists-has assumed a gargantuan stature in intellectual history because of his pioneering role in initiating the antiracist creed in American social science. In his attempts to foster the uplift ofAfrican Americans, Boas re acted against the dominant discourse on race and sought to modify the biologistic paradigm that had evolved since the publication of Charles Darwin's Origin ofSpecies in 1859. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that he was firmly anchored in his own times when he discussed the relative intellectual capabilities ofblacks and whites: Boas believed that because of a supposedly defective ancestry that had resulted in purp~rtedly smaller brain sizes and cranial cavities, blacks were a little inferior-on average-to whites in intelligence. Yet despite this reservation he argued vociferously that the variability ofblack intelligence precluded the justification ofblatant forms ofblanket discrimination in the marketplace. For Boas, persons who were black were to be treated as individuals. There was, in other words, no sufficient justification for excluding individual blacks from participating, as much as their capacities allowed, in the community or nation-state. Thus, despite his often ambivalent stance on the issue ofthe defective ancestry of blacks, Boas offered as one explanation for the low status of blacks in the United States the persistence ofEuro-American prejudice. In so doing, he influenced poignantly many educated whites and blacks. Yet the youthful Boas was also aware ofthe obstacles to a truly liber ating triumph of antiracist attitudes and behavior in the United States, obstacles posed not only by the obdurateness of Euro-Americans' prejudi cial attitudes and discriminatory behavior but also by the corresponding fragility ofAfrican American high culture. To combat these, he discredited the Euro-American myth that the racial inferiority ofNegroes was attrib utable to their African ancestry by unveiling their glorious past in Africa. At the same time, he attempted to use his evidence ofAfrican achievements to enhance the image that African American intellectuals and leaders conveyed of their people. Ironically, however, Boas not only sharpened the African 1 2 RETIllNKING RACE American intelligentsia's revulsion against Euro-American racism but also, unwittingly, nurtured their belief in distinct, hierarchical attributes in ref erence to the African past. This tendency resulted in the emergence of various chauvinistic Afrocentric theories ofhistory that have persisted to this day. Boas responded to the dominant discourse on race in three distinct ways. First, he utilized the tools ofanthropometry to generate new facts on which antiracist claims could be based. Second, he used scientific reasoning to question racist explanations of the. facts. Third, he drew on both phys ical and.cultural anthropology to remove the racial markers by relabeling supposedly "peculiar" racial traits as universal human traits. 1 These elicited a variety ofresponses among the African American in telligentsia. On the one hand, there was a direct monocausal relation to the rise ofchauvinistic thinking among blacks. On the other hand, he provided the style of thought that influenced the young generation of antiracist African American social scientists who rose to prominence after 1930. Unlike Boas, who thought science was a universal, purely empirical form ofknowledge, WE.B. Du Bois-because ofthe tremendous tension between his elitist and scientific values and his desire to find a solution to the problem ofethnic solidarity among his oppressed brethren-from 1897 to 1915, vacillated between racial chauvinism in reference to the cultural background ofAfrican Americans and scientism in reference to their socio economic status. Like Boas, however, he too still influences present-day thought on Afrocentrism and the debate concerning race and class. Unlike Du ~ois, Booker T Washington-the only figure discussed here who was not a social scientist-acted as a symbol ofthe aspirations of the freedmen. From 1895, when he reached national prominence, until 1901 he identified with the moderate liberal element in the dominant dis course but also used the racial chauvinistic myth of the African American as "loyal, suffering servant" in an attempt to lure capital to his program

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