Racism and the Western Tradition

Bibliographic Data

ID4456775
AuthorsDante A Puzzo (corresponding author)
Year1964
Volume25
Issue4
Pages579
Publication date1964-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of Ideas (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5037 • E-ISSN: 1086-3222
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2708188
OpenAlexW2315056766
LanguageEN
Citations received9

The revolution in expectations, carburetor of engine of change now roaring through Asia, Africa, and Latin America, owes much in precept and example to United States, classic land of common man. It is therefore altogether fitting that final assault on last important stronghold of colonialism-that which exists within nation and rests on race-should occur in America. For American Negro affluent has also been closed society. His awakening to new and great expectations marks end of an era, an era through which racism coursed black, broad, and mighty, like Mississippi on a moonless night. Gaetano Salvemini, great Italian historian, once remarked that the historical sense is a kind of sixth sense which we cannot fail to acquire as we breathe intellectual atmosphere of our times. 1 Salvemini was undoubtedly right, XXth century is most historically minded of all centuries. Perhaps this is so because with us present is almost unendurable and future quite uncertain. Yet, unlike other dominant ideological forces in modern society, such as nationalism and even socialism, racism is more often viewed sociologically than historically. It might be useful to consider how and in what circumstances this fateful idea first arose, attained a Mephistophelian respectability, and fell into discredit. Racism rests on two basic assumptions: that a correlation exists between physical characteristics and moral qualities; that mankind is divisible into superior and inferior stocks. Racism, thus defined, is a modern conception, for prior to XVIth century there was virtually nothing in life and thought of West that can be described as racist. To prevent misunderstanding a clear distinction must be made between racism and ethnocentrism. The term ethnocentrism-of comparatively recent coinage-is derived from Greek. While ethnos meaning race or nation and ethos meaning character or tradition are related words, ethnocentrism serves to describe identification of oneself with one's own people as against rest of mankind, indiscriminately. The ancient Hebrews, in referring to all who were not Hebrews as Gentiles, were indulging in ethnocentrism, not in racism. For there was nothing in their attitude to suggest that they believed that a relationship existed between physical characteristics and moral qualities. So it was with Hellenes who denominated all non-Hellenes-whether wild Scythians or Egyptians whom they acknowledged as their mentors in arts of civilization-Barbarians, term denoting that which was strange or foreign

Epistemology · Ethnology · Racism · Sociology · Gender Studies · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society

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