Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

Race and Reason -- Concluding Thoughts

by Carleton Putnam

Unquestionably a major common denominator of fallacy in the many-sided equalitarian ideology was the suppression of the truth concerning the genetic foundation of life. We saw this truth around us every day, in the color of our children’s eyes, in the structure of their bones, in the cast of their countenances, in the qualities of mind and heart that paralleled these elements, yet trance-like we clung to the belief that it did not exist. We had every reason to understand that equalitarian scientists would attempt to suppress it, that the equalitarian virus must strike here, if nowhere else, to bring its victims down. Yet in the vogue of the times, the left-wing drift at home, the growth of socialism in Europe, the success of communism in the East, we dropped our guard, lost our discernment, and succumbed.

The fallacy was serious enough in the private world of the individual. It was doubly serious in the world of race. Here blindness moved to the final follies in Little Rock and Leopoldville. Genetic racial limitations should have been as clear as crystal. All history taught it. All free science confirmed it. Few but a patently self-serving minority of trained investigators contested it. Yet the leading nation of the free world embraced the fallacy, used its influence in foreign affairs in support of it, and corrupted its own people in its name.

Tragic as this was, there was a related tragedy that disturbed me fully as much. I had observed the slow erosion by the equalitarian ideology of the minds of otherwise sensible men and women until, while still conceding the fallacy to be a fallacy, they sought escape for their consciences in compromise and appeasement. The cry of “it’s-too-late” re-echoed from these defeatists like a death knell. I asked myself how far this might be due to a deterioration of the native spirit which founded the nation, and I could only conclude that the explanation lay rather on the borders of the hypnosis. These people were not fully “under”; they were in a half-stupor on the edge. They were sound at heart but slipping into the sleep. I could only say to such victims, “Remember the words of the Messiah: ‘You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.’ Neither you, nor the African-American, nor the nation, nor the world will find freedom or peace or security in fallacies.”

Or upon hearing the alternate cry, “But what can we do?” I could only remind the wringers of hands that the answer to that question comes solely to men who have set their faces toward the truth. There are certain journeys on which one is not given, at the start, to see the end. One asks “Which is the path?” and as one walks, the way is revealed. I could give to these a more recent text than the Bible. I could quote the first President of the United States: “Let us erect a standard to which the wise and honest can repair. The event is in the hands of God.”

However, a rightful emphasis upon genetic foundations could never preclude an equally rightful emphasis upon environment, and I wondered as I completed my answers whether I had made my position on this point plain. No tendency in human nature is more unfortunate than the tendency to swing from one extreme to another. With the decline of feudal society and the onset of the industrial revolution, men of good will had found themselves first hopeful, then doubtful, then despairing. One form of bondage seemed only to yield to another.

Man’s exploitation of man continued in new forms. In Europe the new protest took shape in the extremes of Marxism and communism; in America, ameliorated temporarily by the frontier, in the lesser evils of a society increasingly government oriented. Controls that were initiated to curb license were extended to curb liberty. Equality of opportunity, a most precious and characteristically American ideal, was extended to embrace social, cultural and genetic equality. Error had used the door of pity to enter both our minds and hearts. Environment had been counted upon to accomplish everything, and in the process the general environment had, perforce, declined.

Must I then urge, or seem to urge, a swing toward an exclusively genetic emphasis? Must I be held to condone inferior schools, slums, unnecessary segregation in non-social situations, and humiliating attitudes toward the African-American? Prayerfully not. For every ounce of emphasis on heredity, I favored precisely an ounce of emphasis on environment, provided it were an environment, for white and black alike, which contained inducements to self-reliance rather than to government dependence, and to the earning of status rather than to a presumption of title. Only the raw material was genetic. It determined the limits. What was built within those limits depended on the environment. Good raw material, with nothing built, yielded nothing. Limited raw material with careful building might yield much. There was no denying that the vital force in the soul of a man needed challenge. The distinction that had to be drawn was between the challenge and the millstone.

The environment had indeed declined in its inspirational values, conformity had replaced initiative, security had eclipsed enterprise. It was impossible forever to glorify the underdog without in the end glorifying too much of what the underdog stood for, just as one could not incessantly disparage distinction without in the end destroying excellence. But a vast task remained in creating an inspirational environment for those willing and able to benefit from it. Social justice in such an environment was harder to achieve than social security.

In the case of the African-American it was imperative to remember, in the words of the great French anthropologist Millot, that the limitation was “one of degree and not of nature.” The essential humanity in the African-American must never be forgotten. Cooperation, the bonds of loyalty and affection, in their appropriate spheres, were wholly natural and desirable. It was worth recalling the words of Booker T. Washington, “In all things purely social we can be separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” The ideal of racial integrity did not preclude the ideal of a common humanity. Men of good will, both North and South, both black and white, had always known this. Save for the intrusion of alien influences, they would have continued the progress that had already exceeded any made before.

The African-American in his heart was fully aware of his debt. Since he did not wish to return to Africa, he had the duty to remember, as did all those who were enjoying the blessing of American life, that it had flowered from the blood, the intelligence and the character of men long schooled and experienced in the responsibilities of freedom. If the African-American wished to share in its benefits, let him not undertake to destroy their source, nor to be made a tool by white men of alien background and design.

The man with the heaviest burden to carry, the man who could do the most harm and also the most good -- the man who must choose between avenging or redeeming a past beyond his control -- was the mixed-blood. To him, every white man of good will owed a particular obligation. No class of our citizens were entitled to higher respect than those mulattoes who chose to redeem the past, just as none were to be more shunned than those who chose to avenge it. In the North there were untold numbers who had the alternative. There were many in the South. Wherever they were and in whatever degree their ability and character deserved, let white men open the door of opportunity to them with a special sympathy. Even for them, the white man could not, if he were wise, deny the genetic truth. But he could lighten the burden.

The mulatto who was bent on making the nation mulatto was the real danger. His alliance with the white equalitarian often combined men who had nothing in common save a belief that they had a grudge against society. They regarded every Southerner who sensed the genetic truth as a bigot and used every tactic of deceit and every balance-of-power position to teach and vote a genetic fallacy. Here were the men who needed to be reminded of the debt the Afrian-American owed to white civilization. If Africans were to be brought to America to observe and learn, let such mulattoes be taken to the Congo to observe and learn.

Even here, however, I could not urge a spirit of hostility. Steadfastness against false teachings, but understanding of how such teachings were motivated, was imperative. A little imagination sufficed to recognize the difficulties and temptations, even of the avengers. Firmness was not incompatible with compassion.

As I shuffled the last of these pages on my desk, an October afternoon was ending and, at the country place where I live, the fall air was scented with the smoke of burning leaves. There is always in our American autumn, it seems to me, a quality of appraisal and rededication, and on this afternoon I felt how much we needed an inventory of the values that had made us great. Minority groups, coming to us for asylum out of centuries of failure in the struggle for freedom, clamored to dilute those values, but their voices only made the more necessary our own recommitment. I could only repeat: To alter the foundations on which a house is built is a doubtful way to preserve it. Let us continue building, let us extend the foundations, but let us not change rock to sand.

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