264 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



or inferior. On the biological side tliere may be one exception, viz., the 

 sickle-shaped erythrocyte which is an autosomal dominant trait (Si) 

 found only among Negroes, to the extent of 4 per cent. 



Much is being made these days of "race superiority" and "race inferi- 

 ority." In words of one syllable there is no such thing." One hears of the 

 woodsman who, on a crowded city street, heard a cricket; he can be 

 matched by the mechanic who in the turmoil of a machine-shop hears a 

 bearing-knock in an engine four rows removed. Again there is the savage 

 whose keen eye sees vast distances or detects a faintly-trodden blade of 

 grass; he can be matched by the scientist who under the microscope sees 

 a new world in a drop of water. I'he ear and eye are common human pos- 

 sessions as far as morphology is concerned — it is the degree of their train- 

 ing that differs. This type of reasoning can be applied to any phase of 

 Alan's activities: how he learns and how much he learns is dependent upon 

 his cerebrum and upon the cultural framework within which he learns; 

 the cerebrum is the constant factor, the cultural framework, the variable. 

 The same holds true for "intelligence," however it may be defined and 

 assessed. We repeat that biological superiority and inferiority in the stocks 

 and races of man do not exist, and that biologically there is no valid bar to 

 stock- and race-mixture. The first generation hybrids are not biologically 

 inferior — it is Society and not Nature that stamps the brand of unde- 

 sirability. 



In recent years German anthropologists have, as we know, advanced 

 preposterous claims of Nordic or "Aryan" superiority (Das Herrenvolk). 

 Such claims have no basis in fact. They have also claimed that widespread 

 race-crossing ("race bastardization") will have a dysgenic effect ("gene 

 chaos"), leading to various bodily abnormalities and asymmetries. This, 

 too, is far more fanciful than real, though Fleming,^^ an English anthro- 

 pologist, has found some shght evidence of dento-facial disharmonies in 

 Negro-White hybrids crossed with Negro-Chinese and Chinese-White 

 hybrids. But this evidence is not conclusive, for there is no guarantee that 

 growth inadequacies rather than genes are to blame, i. e., that malnourish- 

 ment has not modified a genetic pattern. As matters now stand the crossing 

 between sub-species or stocks is socially so unacceptable that only lower 

 social strata are involved. It is precisely here that environmental impact 

 and modification — in terms of insufficient and incorrect foods, improper 

 hygiene, health hazards — are at their maximum. We have no adequate 

 basis, therefore, for a true assessment and interpretation of the solely bi- 



15 Otto Klineberg, "Race Differences," Harpers, N.Y., 1935-, W. M. Krogman, "Is 

 There a Physical Basis for Race Superiority?" Sci. Mon., 51: 428-434, 1940; AI. F. Ash- 

 ley Montagu, "Problems and Methods Relating to the Study of Race," Psychiatry, 3 

 (4); 493-506, 1940. 



18 R. M. Fleming, "Physical Heredity in Human Hybrids," Annals Eugen. 9: 55-81, 



1939. 



