262 THE TREND OF THE RACE 



of bi-racial ancestry. ... In all times in the history of the American 

 Negro and in all fields of human effort in which the Negroes have 

 entered, the successful individuals, with very few exceptions, have 

 been mulattoes. . . . 



In South Africa the mulattoes are on a distinctly higher cultural 

 level than are the natives of unmixed blood. In the British West 

 Indies the more cultured mulattoes have been formed into a middle 

 class group, separated from and superior to the black peasantry. . . . 



In North Brazil the mixed-blood group of Portuguese, Indian and 

 Negro ancestry are on a distinctly higher social and intellectual 

 plane than are either the Negroes or the native Indians. ... In the 

 Philippines the half-castes of Chinese-Moro, as well as those of Spanish- 

 Moro, origin are well in advance, intellectually, of the pure-blood 

 natives. Every man in the Filipino group who has risen above 

 mediocrity under the Spanish, as under the American, occupancy of 

 the islands has been a man of bi-racial ancestry. 



While admitting that the simplest explanation of the superior- 

 ity of the mulatto is that it is due to the infusion of a superior 

 mental inheritance from the white race, the author holds that this 

 does not account for all of the superiority, and attempts to work 

 out another interpretation of the results based on the assumption 

 that the black and the white races are essentially equal in native 

 intelligence. Mulattoes, it is claimed, enjoyed superior advan- 

 tages during the period of slavery and afterward, but the chief 

 cause of their superiority is the fact that "from the Negro side 

 the mulattoes are descended from the best of the race." 



"The choicest females of the black group became the mothers 

 of a race of half-breeds. The female offspring of these mixed 

 unions became chosen in turn to serve the pleasure of the superior 

 group. By this process of repeated selection of the choice girls of 

 the black and mulatto group to become mothers of a new genera- 

 tion of mixed-blood individuals, there has been a constant force 

 making for the production of a choicer and choicer type of fe- 

 male." Thus a process of marriage selection is instituted which 

 the author thinks goes far toward explauiing the intellectual 

 superiority of the mixed type. 



