Scientific Racism

“Common sense itself is scarcely needed to detect the absence of manhood in a monkey, or to recognize its presence in a Negro. . . .Tried by all the usual, and all the unusual tests, whether mental, moral, physical, or psychological, the Negro is a MAN...Fashion is not confined to dress; but extends to philosophy as well—and it is fashionable now, in our land, to exaggerate the differences between the Negro and the European.”

— Frederick Douglass

Hi Friends!
Welcome to Issue 15 of this newsletter! This week’s topic is Scientific Racism. Scientific racism is the pseudoscientific belief that evidence exists to support or justify racism, racial inferiority, or racial superiority. Most of these claims about Black people were made to justify slavery, segregation and the torture that they endured at the hands of doctors and scientists. From forced sterilization to experimentation to the current day stereotypes that pervade American culture, these false scientific claims have real world repercussions. In this newsletter, we are going to dive into a few key terms, talk through a brief history of scientific racism in America, summarize some of the outrageous claims that this fake science championed and discuss how the ghosts of these lies still haunt Black people today. Let’s get into it!

Key Terms

Pseudoscience: Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method and often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims.

Physiognomy:The practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face.

Eugenics: The practice or advocacy of improving the human species by selectively mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits. It aims to reduce human suffering by “breeding out” disease, disabilities and so-called undesirable characteristics from the human population.

Ethnic Cleansing: The attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcible displacement of persons belonging to particular ethnic groups.

Genocide: An internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The word “genocide” was coined by a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin who sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder during the Holocaust. He formed the word genocide by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing.

Polygenism: A theory of human origins which posits the view that the human races are of different origins. This view is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity.

Let’s Get Into It

A Brief History

• Beginning around the end of the 1790’s, as Enlightenment rationalism replaced faith and superstition as the source of authority and science became the preferred method for reconciling the difference between principle and practice.

• During chattel-slavery (1776-1865) scientific racism was used to defend the use of Black humans for hard labor. We’ll talk about that in more detail below.

• In 1917, American health officials in El Paso, Texas, launched a campaign to use toxic chemicals, including gasoline baths, to disinfect immigrants seeking to enter the United States through the US-Mexico border. This was because Mexicans were seen as dirty and disease ridden and in the wake of eugenics research, immigration officials sought to keep these people out. This campaign lasted well into the 1960s from the forced kerosene baths to the use of the poisonous gas Zyklon B to the fumigations of migrant workers. These “gasoline baths” later inspired Nazi scientist.

• Eugenics took hold in America in the late 19th century, and led to strict immigration policy, foreced sterilizations for those with physical and mental disabilities and even a supreme court ruling in favor of these steralizations until 1942. In the 1930s Puerto Rican women were sterilized without their consent by the thousands. According to a 1976 Government Accountability Office investigation, between 25 and 50 percent of Native Americans were sterilized between 1970 and 1976.

• In the early 20th century, Scientists claimed interracial marriages could cause genetic “disharmony”, one example was that of someone from a tall race marrying someone from a short race and their offspring inheriting the genes for large internal organs from one parent and for small stature from the other causing sickness. Interracial marriage was illegal in America until 1967’s Loving Vs. Virginia.

We know that racists have cited many works supported by scientific racism to justify segregation in the community, separate schooling, incarceration and the overall oppression of marginalized groups. This is the most summarized history of scientific racism I could piece together, but as always, if something piques your interest, I hope you continue learning!

Claims Made Using Scientific Racism

• Slaves are more accustomed to warm weather and toiling in the sun, being from African, and they can withstand the sunlight better because they have an eye feature like those found in apes. Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright (1815). (CHSTM + Washington Post)

• Drapetomania is a sickness that causes slaves to runaway and is only curable with physical punishment. Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright (1815). (Washington Post)

• Slaves have no imagination or taste, are lustful but do not know how to love, and can tolerate more pain than other races. Ultimately either the Black or white race would have to be extinct for the other to survive. Founding Father, Thomas Jefferson in “Notes on the State of Virginia”.

• Black people are impervious to pain and have weak lungs that can be strengthened through hard work and intense labor. (NY Times)

• British doctor, Benjamin Moseley, claimed that Black people could bear surgical operations much more than white people, noting that “what would be the cause of insupportable pain to a white man, a Negro would almost disregard.” To drive home his point, he added, “I have amputated the legs of many Negroes who have held the upper part of the limb themselves.” (NY Times)

• In his autobiography, “The Story of My Life,” the physician J. Marion Sims— long celebrated as the father of modern gynecology—also claimed Black people could withstand more pain. He described the agony Black women suffered as he cut their genitals again and again in an attempt to perfect a surgical technique to repair vesico-vaginal fistula, which can be an extreme complication of childbirth. (NY Times)

How This Impacts Black Americans Today

• Cartwright (yeah, the same doctor that diagnosed Drapetomania) wanted to validate his theory about lung inferiority in Black people, so he measured pulmonary function with an instrument called a spirometer, that he designed. He calculated that “the deficiency in the Negro may be safely estimated at 20 percent.” Today most spirometers, used around the world to diagnose and monitor respiratory illness, have a “race correction” built into the software, which controls for the assumption that Black people have less lung capacity than whites. (Breathing Race Into the Machine)

• Present-day doctors fail to sufficiently treat the pain of Black adults and children for many medical issues due to the remanence of slavery claiming Black people were stronger, tougher, had thicker skin and felt less pain. (AMA Journal)

• A 2016 survey of 222 white medical students and residents showed that half of them endorsed at least one myth about physiological differences between Black people and white people, including that Black people’s nerve endings are less sensitive than white people’s. When asked to imagine how much pain white or Black patients experienced in hypothetical situations, the medical students and residents insisted that Black people felt less pain. (PNAS)

• Stereotypes that pervade pop culture like Black people being pomiscusous, having larger genitals, being better athletes or stronger or less intelligent are all myths that remain from the studies of scientific racism.

Due to scientific racism, we are left with stereotypes that are so ingrained in American culture that even some of our best doctors and lawmakers believe them to be fact. From disparities in healthcare to mistreatment in the education system to the simple everyday practice of crossing the street when you see a Black person because something tells you they’re more likely to be a criminal—the lies of scientific racism pervades our current culture.

I highly encourage you to take a look at some resources Alok recently shared about physiognomy and eugenics and how those pseudosciences have and continue to oppress marginalized groups, with them specifically relating it to the queer and trans experience.

On Friday, we’ll be talking about Prison Reform. This is such an important topic to discuss because not only are Black and brown bodies disproportionately filling America’s prisons, but they are more likely to be arrested, victims of excessive force, and murdered by police. I’ll be sharing some of my favorite organizations at the front-lines of this work and ways to make an impact. See you there!