484 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



an active and steady immigration of Spanish peasants which in ten 

 years has amounted to 128,000. 16 Gradually overborne by numbers, the 

 negroes are beginning to segregate, and in 1908 a party of color was 

 formed. While there is as yet no definite color caste in social life, the 

 supplanting of Spanish influence by American ideas will doubtless 

 gradually assimilate conditions in Cuba to those of the neighboring 

 states of America. 



In the last analysis color prejudice is based on cultural difference 

 more than on the degree of pigmentation. Because extremes of physical 

 difference do actually in large measure accompany difference in culture 

 rank, the most radical race antagonisms are those between the extreme 

 whites and the extreme blacks. A black skin is everywhere associated in 

 thought with cultural inferiority. Back of this may lie a subconscious 

 suggestion of the historical fact that the negroid races have achieved 

 few of the cultural values that are to the white man the marks of supe- 

 rior mental and social efficiency. To the extent that the blacks live 

 down this stigma of cultural inefficiency prejudice against them will 

 lose its force. There are abundant evidences of color aversion on the 

 part of the white towards the yellow, brown and red races, but it no- 

 where reaches the intensity of that directed against the blacks, nor is 

 it of sufficient depth to constitute a fundamental social problem. 



Speaking particularly of race antagonism in South Africa, Mr. 

 Bryce says: 



The sense of his superior intelligence and energy produces in the European 

 a sort of tyrannous spirit which will not condescend to argue with the native, 

 but overbears him by sheer force and is prone to resort to physical coercion. 

 Even just men, who in theory have the deepest respect for human rights, are 

 apt to be carried away by this consciousness of superior strength, and to become 

 despotic if not harsh. And the tendency to race enmity seems to lie very deep 

 in human nature. Perhaps it is a survival from the times when each race could 

 maintain itself only by slaughtering its rivals. 17 



It is therefore by narrowing the gap between the actual cultural 

 status of the races that the worst aspects of race animosity are elimi- 

 nated. Whether, as Boas and Ward hold, the total mental capacity of 

 all races is essentially equal, is not here the question. Achievement of 

 any valid kind, whether by individuals or by racial groups, is bound 

 ultimately to command respect. World contacts are rapidly increasing 

 and a higher degree of intergroup cooperation is making possible a wide 

 diffusion and sharing of the achievements of each of the great racial 

 groups. When this process shall have gone far enough much of the 

 asperity which has characterized the periods of isolation will be 

 materially softened. 



16 "Censo de la Republica de Cuba," 1907, pp. 59-66; see also Johnston, 

 "The Negro in the New World," p. 60. The census of 1907 shows that in a 

 total popuulation of 2,048,980 the colored number 608,967, or 29.7 per cent. 

 The unmixed negroes number 242,382. 



"Bryce, "Impressions of South Africa," p. 366. 



