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chapter 12
RACE R E LAT I ON S
THE RACE PROBLEM
W
hen
we turn to a consideration of the relationships among
the races, we are faced with one of the most complex and stubborn
problems of the contemporary social order. While differences be
tween various groups of men and individuals have always been rec
ognized and while the tendency toward ethnocentrism has apparently
been perennial, discrimination on the basis of alleged racial or
biological differences is a relatively modern phenomenon. In earlier
times, discrimination against various out-groups rested primarily
upon such factors as religious differences, nationality differences, or
differences in language rather than upon differences in physical traits.
According to Dean Liston Pope, “a well-articulated theory of ra
cial superiority” first made its appearance in the writings of Comte
Arthur de Gobineau, who between 1853 and 1855 published a four-
volume work entitled
Essai sur 1’ Inégalité des races humaines.1
De
Gobineau was primarily interested in bolstering the declining position
of the nobility not of one nation alone but of all civilized countries by
identifying them as Aryans and proclaiming them to be superior to
all other racial groups. De Gobineau’s pseudoracial theories were
further developed by Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who applied the
concept of a superior race to the Teutonic (Germanic) peoples in
order to support the national aspirations of the Germans. Chamber-
lain also proclaimed that the Jews were a degenerate race. Both of
these ideas were in turn taken over by Adolf Hitler, who used them
1 Liston Pope,
The Kingdom Beyond Caste,
New York, Friendship Press,
1957, pp. 22 ff.
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