Like Roosevelt the term "race" is used poorly. If you speak of the "White" race, you assume that race is a matter of skin pigmentation; when you refer to the "Jewish" race, you are differentiating on a religious basis; while the "Irish" race must mean one "characterized either by geographical position, or, failing, that, by temperament." The criteria of race, anthropologically speaking, are physical characteristics.

"Race is most often mouthed by those who claim superiority because of their lineage. Debased in this way, it remains "little more than a slogan of mass snobbery . . ." Absurd are those who boast of their "pure" racial ancestry; usually they call themselves "Nordics." There is probably not an unmixed Nordic in the world unless he exists in a remote part of Sweden or at the source of a Norwegian fjord, and even there he may have Mongoloid Lappish blood. To scientists a "pure race" is almost an abstraction; anyway, the greatest cultural achievements have been produced by racially mixed peoples, for according to the laws of heredity two and two can often make five. The subject of race sounds much more sensible treated biologically rather than politically or socially.

Crossing between races that are physical far apart involves serious social results. Since one race is dominant, society forbids legal unions. Thus, the offspring, besides being unique in look, are socially stigmatized; at best they must live with the inferior group. In America mulattoes have increased rapidly, so that now only one-fourth of the Negro population is full-blooded. To discourage marriages between Negroes and Whites a pseudo-scientific propaganda has appeared which underlines the supposed bad effects of crossing. But scientists doubt if mulattoes are inferior; among Indians they have found that mixed bloods show less sterility and greater vitality than pure bloods.

"Race" conscious people make wild guesses as to the mentality of races. A group having an inferior culture, from out point of view, does not necessarily belong to an inferior race. Nationality and race cannot bear confusion. Contrary to the general opinion, or prejudice, are records of powerful Negro kingdoms in East and West Africa. For centuries Negroes have been skilled iron-workers; in 1500 they did bronze casting to perfection. Much of India's civilization is owed to Negroes. Seventy years of emancipation for the American Negro are no fair test of his capacity. See how Europeans estimated the Japanese fifty years ago, and then read the Hearst papers of today!

This morning the Vagabond will listen to Professor Hooton lecture on "Race Characteristics" at ten o'clock in the Semitic Museum.