Bliss or Discontent?

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 21, 2 December 1932, Page 3

Bliss

or

Discontent?

Oo’. of the great international problems . that will trouble the world during the present century is the social and cultural problem arising from the mixture of races. The problem is largely the result of rapid communication and industrial exploitation. Let us think of some remote part of the world inhabited perhaps by natives having a simple but \ strict culture different from our own. Some prospector discovers that ‘there is gold in the rocks, or that the soil is excellent for growing some valuable crop. He builds a station and begins to exploit the resources. In a short time he trains natives to do the physical labour because the climate doesn’t suit the white man. The natives are thus able to command by their wages a fuller material life than they had before, and all seems to be going well for everybody. But shortly a multitude of troubles arise, and humanitarian politicians and thinkers condemn what they régard as the disastrous effects of the influence of the white man’s civilisation upon the happy native life. We are not now concerned with discussing the rights and wrongs of such a case, or of the comparative happiness or unhappiness of the native, or whether the bliss that comes with ignorance is better worth having than the discontent that comes with knowledge; all we wish to do is to consider what are the chief effects, disastrous or otherwise, which come from the bringing of different races into touch’ with one another. Whether: we like it or not, we must face the fact that the world is at the present time disfigured by seemingly incurable sores caused by, the friction of peoples of different races. We see such sores on a large scale in the negro problem in America, among the many races in India, in South Africa; we see frequent rashes breaking out all over the earth in the persecution of the Jewish people; we see small eruptions in Central Europe, in Honolulu, in the Philippines, in Samoa, in a thousand places; and the fear of an outbreak which some consider would disfigure the fair face of Australia has taken the form of a national policy which others regard as being diametrically opposed to the religion they profess. However great the problem is to-day there is every chance of it ‘growing to. alarming dimensions during this century, unless the races aat the present controlling the economic power can-be brought to regard other members of the human race with more understanding and less ignorantly superior prejudice-whatever may be ‘the colour of their skins or the shapes of ‘their noses. , The contempt of one race for another is usually based on the quicksands of prejidice,: which’ quickly. slip away’ when they -are

scientifically examined. However, the prejudice remains long after our reason has rejected it. How ridiculous now seems to us the contempt of the Nor-

man for the Anglo-Saxon a few centuries ago. Dut, one May say, the Norman and Saxon were really near akin, and so of course the Saxon would soon mount to the cultural standard of the Norman, since he had just as good a brain; whereas, it may be objected, the American white and the negro are not near akin, and their brains are very different in their power. But is this so? Their kinship is relatively remote, but how different are they in brain power? ArOecH partisan writers in the Southern States of America make loose investigations with the express purpose of proving the fundamental inferiority of the coloured population, there are no scientifically conducted inquiries which give us any real grounds for assuming such inferiority to exist. For evidence let us look up the documents published by the United States Congress, which surely cannot be considered prejudiced in favour of the coloured man. . Professor Arthur Macdonald gave extensive tests in Washington to thousands of school children in 13 school subjects: Algebra, arithmetic, dtawing, geography and so on. Then he divided the children into three groups: The bright ones, the average, and the dull ones, according to their scores. Among the white boys of purely American parents 37.5 per cent. were bright, 42.3 per cent. were average, and 20.2 per cent. were dull. Among the coloured boys examined on the same standard there were 47.2 per cent. bright ones, 33.5 per cent. average, and 19.2 per cent. dull. We see, then, that (Continued inside back cover.)

".... or whether the bliss that comes with ignorance.is better than the discon- ‘ tent that comes with knowledge.... Whether we like it or not, we must face the fact that the world is at the present time disfigured by seemingly incurable sores caused by the friction of peoples of different races ...." In the following article (a 3YA talk), Professor James Shelley discusses the social and cultural problems arising from the mixing of races.

plese penne oes p fa tetera ae pte tp FP aimee 4 sare? Bliss or ? ; "According to Professor James Shelley, and contrary to popular: belief, racial mixing apparently IS. necessary for the health and cultural progress of nations, (Continued: from Page 3.) _

baer ‘there were. 47 per cent. bright coloured boys and 37 per cent." bright white boys, . From such figures, and there are many more which lead to the same conclusion, we certainly cannot take it,for granted that there is any real superiority in the brain power of the white people over that of the coloured,..:.5,.;, ‘, iN We must therefore assume that within narrow limits the brainpower of practically all the races of -man-of whatever colour-is the same. Now let us. go back ‘to our supposed instance and ,consider some of the effects of racg mixtiire. ee . ~ ¥frst, the communal organisation and feelirig of the ‘natives is broken up, because the white man gives individual wages to a native and he begins to feel a desire, to assert himself and — not look upon,his life and goods as belonging to the Whole tribe. Now this may be good or..bad ultimately, but at any rate for the time being it causes social disruption. "The native’s attitude of mind is like that of. the prodigal son who wished to break away from the community and be, independent. Secondly,. the gods and the ‘moral regulations and tabus of the native are \ not recognised by the white, and. yet ‘he seems tO prosper and the heavens do not fall-so gradually the native throws oyer his religious and moral sanctions, and only gets a few. superficial, tricks of behayiour from the white, so that it seems for the time being that,hé is a person of. lower -moral nature, although in most cases this is by no "means fundamentally true. a ° Thirdly, the beautiful arts and crafts of the native-in which so much spirit‘nal value is embodied-soon become mere market produce for the souvenirhunting tourist, and they become. degraded and worthless. . Fourthly, there soon arises in some clever native a‘realisation of his own ‘power and..capacity, and -he sees no reason why his people should be thus turned into slaves and forget their native dignity and culture. | Many stories are "told of ‘the bitter tragedy it is. to the old_folk to see all the culiyre they’ treasured being sold for ‘a mess of pottage. Some patriot arises _and tries to awaken the slumbering pride of his ~‘people, and political trouble arises. ~ And so we could go on showing all these immediate effects of this race mixture. But it is more important to consider. the’ long . distance results. Does the mixture-.of races’ degrade culture ultimidtely?, Does the mixture of races prodice human beings of a loser quality than either of the racial stocks as some people maintain? & Should we: pride ourselves on the purity of race? ‘To, deal with the Jast question first. We English can’t afford to-count purity vefy-far back, or we find we are an extraordinary race of -mongrels, And indeed there are very few nations at the present time of white population. who can boast anything like thé purity of many of the coloured races. they sometimes despise, This desire for purity of race

is ‘nothing more than an expression of’ the old. tendency of nature to want to stick to the normal- anything. that ig very much different from our own normal. selves we have a feeling of repulsion for.. Ad yet, progress comes from the’ variations from the normal. And so it is with race. Purity of race frequently produces sterility, and-the race dies out. "The human. rate is very like flowers in’: this respect. Native races of very'pure stock-like the’ Andamanese-eyen though white man’s diseases. dd’ not enter into the

-=_ situation, "seem gradually to have fewer and fewer children-and then die out completely. And what about fhe arts and sciences -the culture of nations? If we look through history wé come to the same conelusion. The great periods when man’s mind and spirit seems~to have reached an extraordinarily high standard of -expression-such as With the Greeks in the fifth céntur y, ‘B-C.-seem always to have followed ‘at:some little distance after the mixing of races. It is as though the outlook of ‘one type of mind has beer fully expre essed and then decayed through lack of further vision, Then comes the riew blood, With different yearnings--and the mixing of: the two is not just a matter of simple addition, but rather of chemical combina-tion-producing a new spiritual. outlook with new powers. | And as it. is with nations so it se ems to be with individuals, If you Jook through a loug list of the world’s controlling figures at. the present day and in the past, you will not find much purity of blcod among them. Perhaps the mixture is not of races’ as fat apart.as. the Hottentot and’ the Swed:

ish, but the mixture is nevertheless quite great. Think of the great figures who haye come from the borders of countries. where..races mix. Poets and ‘painters innumerable come from the borderlands of Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, where the Celtic blood has mixed with the Saxon. Perhaps that is because these people of mixed blood are more. conscious of life’s forces fighting in their veins and so become more expressive than their pure-blooded brothers. . Or "perhaps it is because the more vigorous blooded individuals of one.race tend. to kick over the racial traces and marry the vigorous rebels of the other racé, However, we. look at, this race mixture problem, we see in the long tun the same sort of mixture seems to. be necessary for the health and cultural progress of nations... My mind turns to artists and dramatists. Shakespeare was born near enough the borders of Wales to have. Celtic blood in him. Goldsmith: from Dublin, and how many more famous dramatists from the mixed: part of Ireland? Ibsen was. a terrible mixture, I looked along the backs of books on British artists and I.see-George Morland-English father anc. French mother.’. David Cox, prob-~ ably. Welsh and English. Raeburn, of border stock. ‘David Roberts, also. of border stock. -Thomas' Girtin was French and English. Reynolds, .near enough to. Cornwall to .have:. Celtic blood in him. Romney, from Cumberland must also be a mixture of Celtic and. Saxon. © "Millais, was of- ‘Channel Tslahd stock. * Italian and English. And so we, could. go on through. the great names-in the Arts of alk countries. We must then cast aside ‘the unreasoned ' prejudices that — naturally arise in us through strange- — ness of;colonr or other racial charac- | teristics: Who knows but that the great culture of the 21st century is not at this moment being prepared for among those hetcrogeneous mixtures of peoples to whom: we are often so cruel in our scorn. Read John’ Galsworthy’s play called "The Little Man," and we see in that splendid little parable that while the nation-proud Kinglish, and American, and German and Dutch find excuses for passing by on the other side, it is the little man whose blood is described by the American as being a bit streaky who goes to the rescte of distressed humanity in the form of the poor mother and her babe. . Let us start with the beauty common to all races that is symbolised. by the mother and her babe, and from — that, build a new vision of destiny of | races and national cultures, ai