A WORLD-WIDE COLOR LINE 481 



of commanding the confidence of both parent stocks, usually himself 

 becomes the object of animosity on the part of both, and this is an 

 added danger to social peace. Ostracized by both races, he is particularly 

 hateful to the more backward type. Mixed breeds usually possess greater 

 mental capacity than the pure blacks and are the victims of the latter's 

 jealousy. 12 This is in harmony with the familiar social law that in a 

 given society made up of hostile classes it is the nearest, and particularly 

 that next above in the social scale, which is most cordially hated. 

 Jealousy of hybrids is due chiefly to two causes. They are, except in the 

 United States, more freely admitted to social privileges, and it is with 

 them that the dominant race is more likely to contract marriage. In the 

 United States, where any appreciable intermixture of blood exists, the 

 mongrels are enumerated as negroes, while in nearly all the other 

 countries mixed breeds constitute a separate and often a privileged 

 class. 



To characterize the negroes merely as a passive race, as is often done, 

 does not fully cover the situation. It is more nearly correct to describe 

 them as pliable and imitative. Ability to bend and adapt has proved the 

 negro's salvation in the supreme test of contact with complex and often 

 rigid white institutions. In marked contrast stands the American 

 Indian whose " grand refusal " has been his undoing. Not only has the 

 negro of the new world survived transplanting, but he has everywhere 

 taken on the cultural tone of the particular white group with which he 

 has been brought in contact. In Spanish America he has acquired the 

 taste in dress and the pride bearing of the Castilian. In Haiti he is 

 essentially French and in Brazil Portuguese. The impress of France is 

 still on the negroes of Louisiana and the Jamaican negro is unmistakably 

 British. 



In other words, the negro reflects by imitation the civilization of the 

 society in which he lives. His character in any mixed society depends 

 largely on the social standards which others set. Originally brought into 

 touch with European civilization without any fixed cultural equipment 

 of his own, he develops in social capacity along the lines of least resist- 

 ance, reacting to such stimuli as the social environment offers. But 

 while lacking in positive cultural achievement he possesses certain well- 

 developed temperamental traits which enable him to fit into some social 

 environments better than others. He is sensuous, and his esthetic nature 

 is richer on some sides than that of the north European. It can hardly 

 be questioned that the Latin temperament is better adapted to harmonize 

 with the nesrro than is the less volatile Teuton. 13 Just as the American 



o 



"See Prichard, "Where Black Eules White: Haiti," p. 280; also Kirke, 

 "Twenty-five Years in British Guiana," pp. 260-262. 



13 Oliver asserts that the negro is naturally more courteous than the lower 

 classes of northern Europe, and he is convinced that the insolence of the Amer- 

 ican negro is due in large measure to the bad manners and unwarranted preten- 

 sions of the whites. ' ' White Capital and Colored Labor, ' ' pp. 46, 48. 



