TEE MULATTO 573 



THE BIOLOGICAL STATUS AND SOCIAL WOKTH OF THE 



MULATTO 



By Professor H. E. JORDAN, Ph.D. 



UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 



THE United States has something more than a "negro problem"; 

 it has a mulatto problem. Our 10,000,000 colored fellow-citizens 

 comprise somewhat less than 8,000,000 full-blooded negroes; approxi- 

 mately 2,000,000 contain varying percentages of "white" blood. This 

 "white man's burden" has several cardinal aspects, notably, social, 

 economic and political. The fundamental aspect, however, is the bio- 

 logic. Does the presence of this vast company of "half-breeds" com- 

 plicate or facilitate the "problem"? Certain it is that they must be 

 reckoned with. Are they an aid or a hindrance to a permanent satis- 

 factory adjustment of full relationship between the white race and the 

 colored? To one man their presence is a source of black despair, to 

 another of radiant hope. Which is the more rational attitude? It de- 

 pends upon the scientific facts in the case. The first point concerns 

 the biological status of this mulatto hybrid. 



It may help the subsequent discussion to note at this point the fact 

 that Jamaica does not have a "negro problem" as we know it in the 

 United States. And on the face of things it would appear that it 

 might well be present there in even more aggravated form. For in 

 Jamaica there are only about 15,000 whites among a colored popula- 

 tion of about 700,000, including about 50,000 mulattoes. It should be 

 noted that in this " Queen of the Greater Antilles " the mulattoes, as a 

 class, are more nearly at the level of the whites than at that of the 

 pure negroes. The mulattoes contribute the artisans, the teachers, the 

 business and professional men. They are the very backbone of wonder- 

 ful Jamaica. To be sure, Jamaica has had 30 years more than the 

 United States during which to "solve" her "negro problem." But 

 perhaps the perfect adjustment between the races in Jamaica and the 

 elimination of any "problem" of this kind finds its explanation in a 

 more rational and more consistent political treatment made possible 

 by the absence of any constitutional prescription. We may well sus- 

 pect that the inconsistency of according to the negro legal (constitu- 

 tional) equality and withholding it practically (politically and so- 

 cially) has had a morally harmful effect upon both black and white. 

 To stultify oneself as between one's theory and practise is always sub- 

 versive of high moral tone. We shall return to this point below. 



