09.04.09
My Comments on The Skull Measurer’s Mistake
The Skull Measurer’s Mistake by Sven Lindqvist is a short, but interesting book dealing with racism in history. Lindqvist writes that, “The history of racism is not only about racists. Throughout history there have also been people who have seen through the errors of racists and protested against their abuses. This book is about some of those people.” In keeping with Lindqvist’s writing style in Exterminate All the Brutes, Lindqvist writes in an easy to follow and straightforward narrative. He quotes many people in history including the references from where those quotes and ideas come in reference to the climate of the times. Once again, he has taught me much more about our history, particularly in light of racism. Understanding racism a bit better helps me to recognize it more easily when I see it. Many racist ideas and terminologies have continued to carry on in our world today and is more evident now that we currently have an African-American president.
I grew up hearing the terms “white people,” “black people,” “brown people,” “yellow people,” and “red people.” It was normal for me to hear that when referring to different people of different ethnicities. However, when I met Brian, he didn’t like it when I used those terms. He would tell me he didn’t know what I was talking about. He asked me how did I judge or know who was white or black? People can be mixed (and more often than not are), but it’s not always evident. But most of all, the reason he didn’t like those terms were because he believed they were racist terms used primarily for slavery. And it has only been relatively recent that I find that I’ve been somewhat confused about the term “racism,” too. And upon reading the news recently regarding issues dealing with Sotomayor and Obama, I’m seeing that many other people are also confused by the terms racist/racism and ethnic or ethnicity, etc. Sadly, I’ve only seriously examined racism more recently as I’ve been reading about Africa and our history of colonialization. And now after reading Sven Lindqvist’s books, The Skull Measurer’s Mistake and Exterminate All the Brutes, it has been made much more clear how those terms of skin color have been used throughout history to create a system by which anyone other than “white” aka the “superior class” naturally would and could be subjugated by inherent right. Terms separating the colors of people were fabricated to justify colonialization and subjugation by various Europeans. People other than white were considered less than human, less intellectual, barbaric and unfeeling, no different from animals. However, as Lindqvist (and even Brian) pointed out, it’s very subjective how one is deemed either white or “non-white.” This becomes more evident when we look at the history of how the Jews were looked upon as well as the Irish, the Egyptians, the Armenians and Turks, the Boers, and many other ethnic groups. It becomes much more difficult to determine who among them were white or black (non-white) solely by looking at their skin color, yet amongst the subjugators, they were not all looked upon as white, but rather inferior and even given labels such as “white negroes.” Today we see it termed “white trash,” and other names. The terms live on, and we use them today unwittingly further validating that such designations truly exist, and are even “neutral” to describe a people. They are not neutral and I see now, more than ever how it is a mistake for us to continue using those terms. We do not have a black president, we have an African-American president. Black is a racist term, African-American is the proper designation of his ethnic heritage. And for those who said during the election that Obama isn’t black, but Muslim when referring to his ethnicity, well that was really messed up because the term Muslim isn’t an ethnic term either, but a term used to denote religious affiliation, not ethnic affiliation. From reading comments online, I see that there is a lot of confusion out there.
In discussing the issue with the Jews in Germany, Lindqvist wrote,
“Those who captured Alsace-Lorraine from France in 1870 are now applying their racial theories to the French Jews there and calling them “Semites.” The Germans have always loved to give their hatred a veneer of science. But “semitic” is a linguistic term that describes a language group–that there should be a corresponding biological race is only an assumption. To want to found the nation on a common race, as the Germans do, is just as backward as the Russians wanting to found theirs on a common faith. ‘All modern nations are racially mixed. We are all half-breeds.’
So cultural fellowship is more important than biological. Let us quite simply admit, says Leroy-Beaulieu, that in disposition, abilities and intellectual habits, a French Jew, even if called a Semite, is far closer to us than an Indian Brahmin, even if he is called Aryan.”
From the viewpoint of the Christian, these separations of color should be ridiculous because if we believe the Bible, then we are all descendants of Adam and Eve. We are all essentially one blood despite the fact that many of us have been separated for generations and certain characteristics may have become dominant or recessive. Charles Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, the strong will eliminate and conquer the weak is contrary to the Bible in more than one way because not only is the theory of evolution contrary to the account of creation in Genesis, but it is also contrary to Jesus’s teaching that we are to care for the weak such as the orphans and widows. The king’s duty, according to the Bible is to advocate for the poor, not to subjugate them or take away their lands and rights and colonize.
Lindqvists quotes many people in history who have questioned racism which raised very thought provoking concepts. One such concept was that race was somehow aligned with the degree of primitiveness. That is, the African due to their inherent race was unable to build a sophisticated society as evidenced by their current cultural way of living. Lindqvist wrote:
“The white races have succeed in convincing themselves that God almighty has created them as lords over not only animals and plants, but also over the rest of mankind. Two hundred years ago, this doctrine was accepted quite uncritically and the subjugated races believed in their own inferiority. But today there is a constantly increasing number among them who accept nothing else except equality between the races.”
Lindqvist quotes Theophilus Scholes who challenged the notion that primitiveness was related to inferior races and thus reflected upon the color of one’s skin. Scholes uses the Egyptians as an example of how they were once considered white while they were admired; however, once they began to be despised, they were considered colored. The Greeks were thought to be the core of European identity, says Martin Bernal, and romanticism idolized the Greeks with their culture and asserted that only racially “pure” civilizations could be creative it followed that racial and cultural mixing in Ancient Greece had to be denied.
What it boiled down to was that only cultured civilizations could be born from the “superior white races.” Scholes challenged that “unless it can be proved that the Egyptians were white at the time when they were the most civilized people in the world, and the white races were black at the time when they were primitive tribes–unless that is proved, the theory that progress and greatness go together with whiteness, and inferiority with black skin, cannot be believed.
“Racial prejudice rests on delusions, much as slavery and the burning of witches do. . . ”
Among other historical events Lindqvist covers is the treatment of the American Indians in the U.S. He writes of the continued broken treaties with the Cherokee and their subsequent loss of land and rights as it relates to racism. Lindqvist’s book, The Skull Measurer’s Mistake has been very enlightening to me. It amazes me how much of history is obscured and not ordinarily taught to our children. We are taught that the importance of history is so that we don’t repeat our mistakes, but ironically we aren’t taught history effectively. I think this is evident with the current widespread continuance of racism and the general lack of understanding of it.
Two thumbs up for The Skull Measurer’s Mistake by Sven Linqvist. I’m going to try to get a hold of his other book called, A History of Bombings. I’m anxious to see his insight on that subject.
Marlakins
